


Soul

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: Transcendent Souls [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comment moderation has been turned on due to large number of trolls observed on Team Tony fics, Gen, Team Tony, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-04-19 03:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 38,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14227890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: What if Thanos came earlier - like much,muchearlier.





	1. A Warning

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**
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> I was watching the latest episode of Cartoon Conspiracy and this plot bunny was just handed to me, gift-wrapped. Thank you, sir, Akeem of Channel Frederator. I know this wasn't your main theory, but it was the one I latched onto.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4VLPm52H2E

**MIT, Boston, 1987**  
A sound woke Tony Stark up.

He lifted his head from the pillow – he supposed Rhodey must have rolled him into bed because he didn’t remember moving and he was still in his band t-shirt and jeans. A light glow got his attention though. He turned his head. The glow was coming from under the door – light green in colour. He got the strangest sensation he was being called.

Rolling out of bed, he walked to the door and out into the hall. He stopped, startled to see two figures. One was an attractive young woman, blonde, blue-eyed, and shapely. The other wore a full-body cloak. The one in the cloak spoke, revealing themself to be a woman as well. ‘Is this him?’

The blonde woman reached out and grasped Tony’s wrist. A sudden warmth shot through all of Tony’s nerve endings. His line of vision coloured orange for just a moment. The strangest images filled his head – things that made no sense to him. The blonde woman nodded and dropped his arm. The sensation passed as quickly as it had come. ‘It is. What is your name?’

Tony swallowed, not even thinking about how odd it was that someone didn’t know him. ‘Tony Stark. Who are you?’

‘We are the personifications of Life and Death in the Universe, Tony Stark.’ The blonde woman gave him a wry smile. ‘On this underdeveloped civilisation, I expect you to be sceptical.’

‘Well, I’m half-convinced this is a dream.’ Tony looked between them.

‘This is no dream,’ the cloaked figure said. ‘This is very real. And I apologise that someone so young is burdened with this.’

‘Come again.’ Tony shook his head. ‘If this is real, how come personifications for life and death look human?’

The blonde woman smiled. ‘We are concepts given physical form and consciousness. Our job is to protect the balance of life and death. But, we are still concepts. Whatever your concept of life and death is, it is how you see us. You value life, Tony Stark, and you see it as a beautiful thing, so I take the image of a beautiful woman.’

‘But death is an abstract concept to you,’ the other woman said. ‘You have not suffered the kind of loss which allow you to appreciate just how precious life is and how swift and merciless death can be. You do not like the idea of death, but you do not fully understand loss and grief either. I look about as good as I’m ever going to look for you.’ She lowered her hood, revealing a sallow, dark-haired woman. She wasn’t ugly. Just a little plain. ‘Once you experience death, and it will happen, I will take on the appearance of a walking, talking skeleton. I generally do.’

Tony swallowed. ‘What do you want with me?’ He still wasn’t sure he believed it. He did in a moment.

The blonde woman – Life, Tony supposed – turned and lifted her hand. Green energy flowed out of her fingertips. The green formed a circle and then an image like a high-definition TV screen appeared. In the screen there was an image of an ugly-arse, huge purple guy. ‘This,’ Life said, ‘is Thanos, otherwise called the Mad Titan.’

Tony watched in horror as the image pulled away from Thanos and swept over what seemed to be a sea of dead bodies. Even though they were aliens, and therefore very far away from him, Tony stumbled back a step. Death spoke up, pulling his attention from the images. ‘He seems to think this impresses me.’

Tony looked at her and swallowed. ‘...So he’s slaughtering people to impress a girl?’

Death looked at him, amused. ‘In essence, yes. Now he wishes to gain ultimate power.’

Life moved her fingers and a set of six different-coloured stones appeared. ‘These are the Infinity Stones,’ she said. ‘Each controls a different power. Each has different qualities. But gather all six and you become the Master of the Universe. Time and matter and life and death is yours to control. This is what Thanos seeks.’  
‘And there’s one here...?’

‘There is one _right_ here,’ Death said. She pointed to a stone on the “screen”. ‘This is the Soul Stone. Of the six, it is the only one with consciousness. And it realised who was after it. Rather than become servant to one who wishes everything destroyed, it fled. It sought out a place to hide.’ She frowned. ‘Unfortunately, the place it decided on was within your own flesh.’

The memory of what he’d just experienced came back to him. Tony slumped against the wall. It seemed, weird as it was, the only logical explanation. ‘What is it? Those voices?’

‘The Soul Stone has the ability to absorb souls,’ Death said. ‘Any person in possession of it has access to all of the memories and powers of the souls trapped within.’

Life lowered her hand and the “screen” disappeared along with the green of her power. ‘We shall leave you now, but we shall return in a week once you’ve had the time to absorb this information.’

They both faded away.

Tony tried to tell himself it was a dream. But it didn’t fade like dreams did. Instead, their words went over and over in his head. The implications drilled at his brain. If this Mad Titan wanted the Infinity Stones and one was in his body (note: never go in for an x-ray again), then he was going to come to Earth and...

...And kill everyone to get it.

Nightmare images assailed Tony’s mind at that thought.

Eventually, he had to admit it had really happened and he really had to address this.

By the time the week passed, he was sitting on the roof – where he knew he wasn’t supposed to be. Life and Death appeared on either side of him and sat down.

‘First question?’ Life said.

‘He’s coming here?’ Tony asked.

‘We expect you have two years,’ Death said. ‘He has already gathered into his possession the Mind Stone and the Power Stone is currently his target. It shan’t take him long, I expect. The travel to Earth will take him longer.’

‘Then what am I supposed to do?’ Tony demanded. ‘I’m just one kid!’

‘You are not, however, the only one on Earth in possession of an Infinity Stone,’ Life said. ‘An Ancient order, called the Masters of the Mystic Arts, are in possession of the Time Stone. They have guarded it since their inception. The operate out of a place called the Kamar-Taj in which I believe is the city of Kathmandu.’

‘Kathmandu?’ Tony nodded. He’d spent the past week (when he’d been avoiding) finishing his assignments for the semester. Classes were nearly all done, so he could go there starting next week.

‘There,’ Death said, ‘you are to tell the Sorcerer Supreme about our visits and allow her to read your mind. It’s simply the quickest and most efficient way to explain the threat to her. She will them teach you to control the power you now hold.’

Tony nodded. ‘What happens if we survive this?’

Life gave him a wry grin. ‘Either the Soul Stone will remain within your body or it will leave you.’

Tony sighed. That was good. He hoped it left. He didn’t want this kind of power. ‘Why did it choose me?’

‘Why not?’ Life quipped.

Death groaned. ‘Life!’

‘Okay, okay.’ Life ran a hand through her hair. ‘The Soul Stone needed a powerful host, but, unlike what your world seems to think, physical power means nothing. It needed a mind strong enough and vast to withstand the volume of consciousnesses within. It needed a soul strong enough to not only withstand the sheer power it exudes but also one resistant to being drained into the stone.’

Tony looked at her.

‘The Soul Stone automatically takes in souls – generally from those who die or from those souls who haven’t the resistance to fight it,’ Life said. ‘In order to be a successful host and protector, your soul had to be above that.’

‘So if I die in this, my soul goes in?’ Tony asked.

‘It does,’ Death said. ‘But the Soul Stone will provide a idyllic place in which your soul will reside. You were the only one on the Earth who could meet the criteria. I also suspect your reluctance to gain powers played a part as well.’

‘What do you mean?’ Tony asked.

‘The Soul Stone is proud,’ Death said. ‘It does not like to be subject to the whims of the selfish and the power-hungry. It does not like to be a mere tool to its wielder – which is a large part of why it fled Thanos. To him, it is just a tool. He wants its powers. You do not.’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘So why do you accept, then?’ Life asked.

‘Because if I don’t, everyone dies.’ Tony jammed his eyes shut.

‘And that,’ Life said, ‘is why you are worthy.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was thinking, as I understand Lady Death, "hey, if there's a personification for all death in the universe, why not a personification for all life?"


	2. Kamar-Taj

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony arrives at the Kamar-Taj and begins his training.

**Kathmandu, Nepal**  
The Kamar-Taj was easy enough to find. It was publically cited as a recovery temple. If the personifications of life and death had recommended it though, it had to be much more than that. As Tony drove to the place, he felt an odd sensation. He wondered if it was the Infinity Stone in his body reacting to the one in there.

When Tony pulled up in front of the Kamar-Taj and parked, he was mildly surprised to see a chubby man standing on the front steps. Tony locked up his car and approached him. Not sure what else to say, Tony said, ‘Hello. Is this the Kamar-Taj?’

‘It is,’ the man said in perfect English. ‘I am Wong. Why do you come here, Tony Stark?’

‘I was told to talk to the Sorcerer Supreme,’ Tony said.

Wong nodded. ‘She is expecting you. Come along.’

Wong led Tony up into the temple (or whatever sorcerers called it) and through a few hallways before they came to a room. There were a few others in the room, including one serious-looking man. But there was a bald woman (which you didn’t see very often) standing in the middle of the room, wearing pale robes.

‘The Sorcerer Supreme,’ Wong said, confirming Tony’s suspicions.

‘Why have you come here, Tony Stark?’ the Sorcerer Supreme asked.

Tony supposed they must all be sorcerers. ‘I was approached by the personifications of life and death and told to come here and allow you to read my mind.’

The Sorcerer Supreme raised an eyebrow but strode over to him. ‘Then if I may?’

Tony nodded.

She lifted and hand and pressed her thumb to the centre of his forehead. What she saw in his mind only took a mere second, but her eyes hardened. She obviously understood this a lot better than he did. She stepped back from him and folded her arms behind her back. ‘Wong, Mr. Stark will be staying with us for a while. Set up a room.’

Wong nodded and left.

The serious man looked curious.

The Sorcerer Supreme saw the look. ‘I shall explain at a later time.’ She turned back to Tony. ‘We’ll start by initiating contact with every soul in that stone.’

***

It was only after the Stark boy had fallen asleep, exhausted, that the Ancient One explained to her followers.

‘Shouldn’t we make some movements to secure the Time Stone?’ Mordo asked.

‘Not yet,’ the Ancient One said. ‘We have two years until such a time wherein the Infinity Stone will need to be protected.’

‘What powers does the Soul Stone afford the boy?’ Wong asked.

‘Many,’ the Ancient One answered. ‘Many, many powers. However, we have only two years and I believe not all of them will be required. We will focus on the ones that would be beneficial to him. He intends to give up the powers as soon as he possibly can.’

Mordo looked curious. ‘One would think a child born into circumstances such as he would be inclined to take more power rather than wish it gone.’

The Ancient One nodded her head. ‘But he has grown up his whole life in the shadow of Captain America, his own father constantly comparing him unfavourably to a super-human. He would go one way or the other. We are most fortunate that this is the way he went.’

***

_Can you hear me?_

_Yup._

_We’re going to carry on this entire conversation in this way._

_How long’s that going to be?_

_Patience, Tony. No one learns everything overnight._

***

Tony kicked the soccer ball across the courtyard.

He vanished in a flash of orange light and reappeared across the courtyard at just the right time to kick the ball back. Unfortunately, he didn’t teleport out again before he hit the ground. With a sigh, he pushed himself up. The Ancient One was standing at the edge of the courtyard with the same stoic expression.

She sent him a firm instruction via telepathy. _Try again._

***

This was the hardest part.

There were two offensive, or defensive depending on the usage, powers that Tony had decided to take to defend himself. One of which was energy manipulation. Tony was crouched down, hands planted against the dirt. His eyes were closed as he focused on drawing the energy up into his body. The first few times he’d tried this, he’d gone and knocked himself out. Not fun.

This time, though, he felt the warm hum of energy moving up his arms and into his core, like a battery being charged. Then Tony straightened up. He pushed a hand out. A beam of energy was fired from the palm of his hand and struck the target. Unfortunately, Tony underestimated the force of the beam and went flying back into the wall.

‘Ow,’ he said.

Wong chuckled and helped him up.

The second thing was matter manipulation.

Oh, God.

He sprained quite a few muscles and acquired quite a few scrapes and bruises like that.

***

 **New York City**  
‘There better have been another meeting running overtime,’ Peggy Carter said as Howard Stark walked into her office.

‘Of course there was.’ Howard had long-since given up talking about anything that delayed him. Peg branded such remarks as excuses.

‘Right. We need some new gear.’

‘What and how much?’ Howard asked.

Fury handed him the inventory.

Howard sat down and looked over it. This would sum up to nearly 100 grand at least. He quickly did the math to see how much of it he could spare from his personal fortune and how much he would have to take from his company’s profits. He might even have to cut back some hours from his part-timers this week. Sometimes he thought that Peg didn’t put enough consideration into what Howard actually did for a living (like Maria always said) but he pushed the thought away.

‘How long, Howard?’

‘I can get most of it out within the week,’ Howard said.

‘Good.’ Peg turned to Fury and took a clipboard from him. ‘How’s Tony? Did he get that PhD?’

‘Yeah.’ No need to mention there were three of them. He’d just get an eye-roll. ‘He sent his mother an email though. He said he’s doing some globetrotting now – his words, not mine.’ Howard guessed he was still upset about him not being able to make it to his graduation ceremony.

‘Well, it’ll do him some good,’ Peg said. ‘I’ll have someone keep an eye on him. You never know what that boy’s going to get himself into.’

‘As long as it’s from a distance,’ Howard said. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he had to consistently remind people that he didn’t want Tony involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. _at all_.

This time, he did get an eye roll.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If figure it wouldn't be a Tony training montage without Tony falling flat on his face a few times (looking at you, IM1). ;)
> 
> I'm not sure if I want Howard to want to see some semblance of Cap in Tony or just to be so wrapped up in his past that he misses what's in his present. However, Peg's treatment of Howard in Agent Carter made me think it would just get worse as they got older.
> 
> If you've seen how Peg gets help for her missions from Howard, you'll see what I mean.


	3. Back to Long Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony heads back home, and immediately finds something important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While at the Kamar-Taj, Tony found out about S.H.I.E.L.D. and his father's involvement in it. (I imagine the Ancient One would have kept an eye on them and that was why Fury and co. seemed oblivious to their existence.) They would be on her radar as a threat, especially with the _charming_ way they treat the enhanced.
> 
> There will be a few little adventures before Thanos arrives to set a few things up. ;)

**1989**  
Tony was a bit dubious about going home.

But the Ancient One had assured him that Thanos could not trace the Infinity Stone in his body even with the other ones. The Time Stone, after all, had not reacted to the Soul Stone until it came into proximity with it. So Tony had returned home to see his parents (mostly his mother) and meet up with Rhodey.

Seemed becoming friends with the Stark heir had done wonders for Rhodey’s military career. His only friend (and, no, the sorcerers didn’t count) had already been promoted to First Lieutenant and he was looking at a promotion to Captain right now. Tony didn’t doubt they were hoping to eventually set him up as liaison to SI eventually. In the meantime, he was on R&R from his tour of duty around the time that Tony was coming home.

The past two years had been...educational – and not just in the way of the Soul Stone.

The fact that his dad had daily proximity with the Space Stone concerned Tony. What if he was around when Thanos came to grab it? Tony had to separate the two of them. Thanos would come after the Tesseract. No doubt about it. And no missile, bomb, or any other kind of weapon would put a dent in him. (Not that they wouldn’t try.)  
Tony had no doubt that Life and Death had a plan. Enlightening both Tony and the Masters of the Mystic Arts to the impending threat – and Tony to the presence of the Soul Stone in his body – was clearly part of that. Just what their plan was, he didn’t know. Regardless, Tony had to make contingency plans. He had to protect his friends and family as much as he could. That was why he went to the factory when he knew his dad was at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ.

Tony stood at the Arc Reactor, staring up at it. _Reverse engineered from the Tesseract and dad still made it work._ Yet the Soul Stone was not reacting to it, which meant none of the Infinity Stones Thanos had would react to it either. So the factory was safe from the initial attack. Still, Tony speculated. At the Kamar-Taj, he had undergone thorough tutelage on the Infinity Stones. Since he had one, the Ancient One had wanted him to know what the others could do.

Life and Death had said Thanos had the Power Stone and was going after the Mind Stone. He probably had it by now. Sometime this year (Tony didn’t know exactly when), he would attack and destroy the human race in order to acquire the three Infinity Stones they had (and to try to get into Death’s pants).

 _Tony? What’s he doing here? Oh, well._ The calculation that followed that thought made Tony turn his head in surprise. Obadiah Stane walked up behind him with a wide, friendly grin. It didn’t match what was going on in his head. Tony was glad he’d opted for sunglasses today. It masked his eyes as he came to understand just what was behind that smile.

_‘A scowl and a bad attitude can hide a broken man, and a friendly smile can hide a shark.’_

‘Hey, Obie,’ Tony said, hiding his new understanding of his father’s business associate.

‘What are you doing?’ Obie asked.

‘Hm.’ Tony shrugged, hoping to get some telling thoughts.

_He must have some reason for being here. I don’t want him seeing my clients and blabbing to Howard. Despite what the kid thinks, Howard does actually listen to him._

That was news. Every other time he’d talked to Obie about his father, Obie had been evasive as if he agreed with Tony but he didn’t want to. Hearing this, though, Tony was inclined to think he wanted him to think that. Well, Tony would test it later. Tony wandered away from Obie, keeping up his same old spoilt brat of kid routine.

Long ago, Tony had learned that it was easier to play the part he’d been assigned than it was to try and defy it.

In the Kamar-Taj, Tony had more self-discovery than he had leaving home for the first time.

For the first time since he could remember, Tony’s every move hadn’t been scrutinised, judged, and found wanting. Sure, a lot of those people showed less emotion than Howard on any given day, but Tony had never felt like he was being judged for being a teenage boy. Not even by Mordo, who was the most critical sorcerer in the order.

Going to Kathmandu was easily the best thing Tony had ever done.

Much to the detriment of some other people.

***

The security system was easily bypassed.

The locks were easily picked.

Someone in dark clothes walked into the office of the Executive Officer, Obadiah Stane, and started going through the filing cabinets. When the figure came to a locked drawer, he only took a moment to pick it open. Then he pulled out a set of sales records from the drawer that had not been approved by the company’s CEO.

Tony Stark smirked.

***

Howard Stark was sitting up.

Tony came in a bit earlier than he was expecting. It wasn’t even midnight yet when the front door opened and Tony stepped in. He turned and stopped, face betraying nothing. Good. It was nice to see the assurance that Tony would give nothing away to the cameras when they were turned on him. Howard had learned to do that the hard way.

Then Howard took in his son’s appearance. Black trainers, black jeans, black shirt, and black hooded jacket. His eyes narrowed in on the folder tucked under Tony’s arm. ‘What did you steal?’ His mind was already jumping to how he’d have to cover the kid’s butt for this.

‘Relax,’ Tony said. ‘It was just Obie’s office.’ He threw the file at him. ‘And I fixed the security when I left.’

Howard stared in disbelief as his son walked past and up the stairs to his room. What the hell? Curious, Howard picked up the file Tony had thrown to him, which had landed on the floor. He flicked it open. ‘Son of a bitch!’

***

Stane was arrested the next day by the FBI.

Peg had complained that Howard had called the FBI instead of S.H.I.E.L.D., but Howard had evaded answering why. Stane hadn’t come quietly. He’d actually turned quite violent. It had made Howard see the psychopath for what he was. Even though Howard had been against it, he had to admit that it was Tony, not him, who first got suspicious and had allowed them to interview his son.

They only had one question for him, at least. ‘What made you suspicious to begin with?’

Tony’s answer was simple. ‘I heard him say something about his clients. Way he said it, it sounded like he meant his clients alone and not the company’s, or clients that had been referred to him.’

A simple case of Stane dropping his guard when Tony was standing a little too close.

Later on Maria asked Howard why he hadn’t told S.H.I.E.L.D. Her, he was fine with explaining it to. ‘Peg’s got this really bad habit. If she captures or arrests somebody that she finds useful, no matter what they’ve done, she’ll let them walk free so long as they work for her – or she thinks they’re working for her. A few people have actually escaped prison like that.’

Maria frowned. ‘And she still does it?’

‘Apparently, it’s a bit much to ask her to learn from her mistakes.’

***

A group of men talked around a table.

‘He’s scarcely back a week and he gets an embezzler arrested and put on trial for treason.’

‘Lucky.’

‘Not lucky. Kid’s a genius. He knew what Stane was doing before he went into his office. Stane insists he never said anything incriminating in front of the boy.’

‘He must’ve. How else would the kid know?’

‘And that’s the problem. He must’ve gotten into our databanks somehow.’

‘I thought we were going to use him after we took his father our in a few years.’

‘We were, but he’s proving himself far too dangerous.’

‘So, what do you suggest?’

‘Manya Chaykovsky.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's be honest, we all know where this is going. It's a bit too early for Natalia Romanova.


	4. Black Widow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Black Widow is sent after Tony.
> 
> It's a bit anti-climatic, to be honest.

Interesting thing about becoming telepathic. You suddenly saw the world around you, and the people around you, with a clarity that’d previously eluded you. For starters, he saw the root cause of his father’s obsession with Captain America: Project Rebirth was the one thing he’d done that he felt hadn’t brought destruction into the world.

Knowing that it was more the loss of his pet project rather than the loss of what he considered a perfect human somehow made his father’s bitterness and criticisms more palatable to Tony. That, and he found out that he himself had nothing to do with the criticisms. It was more just him venting his frustrations at home from what happened at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. One such thought, during one of their arguments, had brought that to Tony’s attention at full force.

_Kid can't turn out like me! He’s got to be better than me!_

Put things in a different perspective, and Tony wasn’t sure what to do with it.

‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Rhodey,’ Tony called as he walked out of the Chinese place where they’d spent the last two hours. They were going to hit town tomorrow night. It’d been difficult, really, avoiding answering precisely where he’d been. He wouldn’t mind telling Rhodey about the Masters of the Mystic Arts and the Infinity Stones but...well, who would believe _that_?

(Except for the people he didn’t want knowing about it.)

 _Target sighted._ ‘Excuse me!’

Tony turned his head, his spine instantly stiffening. Sure enough, there was a woman approaching him. He’d say she was around his age. She had long black hair and was wearing a very skimpy dress – short skirt and plunging neckline. In any other circumstance, Tony might have ogled a bit and given her a grin. This time, though, he saw the trap for what it was. And he saw that illuminating her to that would not go very well for him.

‘Yes,’ Tony said as she approached him.

‘I was wondering,’ she said as she sauntered up to him, ‘if you could tell me where to get a decent drink.’

‘Probably could, yeah,’ Tony said, feigning ignorance. ‘And you are?’

‘Oh, I’m Monica,’ she said, sliding in close. _Now._

As she slid the dagger out, aiming for his throat, Tony leapt back. ‘Nice try!’ He then bolted and ran. She obviously hadn’t been expecting to have to run – and those heels would be awful for running in. Tony suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He stumbled, but he kept on going. Tony had a nasty feeling that when he stopped he’d find a blood stain right over his heart. But he didn’t have time to worry about that now.

Behind him, the bitch kicked off her heels and took off after him.

Her thoughts made it very clear how this would go. _Failure is unacceptable._

It occurred to Tony that he could use his powers to escape, or fight her off. Either way, it was an option. But he wouldn’t have these powers forever (nor did he want them) so it would be better if he could survive this on his own merits. They’d be his last resort. Tony knew all too well that the Soul Stone gave him the option of a last resort – even if he was targeted by the best of killers.

Tony only got two blocks before he had to dodge, hopping to the side as she pounced out at him. He found himself pinned to the ground anyway. She swore at him in Russian – something about him being a bastard – and put the barrel of a gun against his head. Tony’s hand snapped up and grabbed her wrist. She sneered at him – but only for a moment.  
Tony had been so focused on Monica that he never noticed Rhodey before he ran up and clocked the bitch across the head. Tony hadn’t seen him coming, but it made sense. Tony had just left a few minutes earlier but Rhodey walked along the same stretch of street to get to his hotel as Tony walked to get home – just for a bit anyway.

Tony rolled to his feet. ‘Owe you one!’ he called as the bitch got up again.

Rhodey already had his gun out. ‘I’m sure I’ll think of something.’

Then the bitch then moved quick, drawing a gun out of nowhere – especially considering how little she was wearing – and the next thing Tony knew, he was on the ground, with a killer headache. Rhodey was leaning over him. Tony blinked and looked over. Monica – if that was even her real name – was on the ground, a bullet wound between her eyes and staring ahead. Rhodey grabbed his arm, staring in disbelief, as Tony sat up.

‘What the hell?’ Rhodey demanded. ‘You were dead a second ago! No pulse and all!’

Okay... ‘What happened?’

‘Well, she shot you, right in the head!’ Rhodey huffed, clearly trying to calm himself down. ‘You went down, I pulled the trigger and shot her.’ _Oh, shit! I’m gonna be in so much shit! I killed someone on American soil!_ ‘Then you opened your eyes and they were glowing.’

Tony lifted a hand to his face.

‘It’s gone now. What the hell is going on?’

‘Long story.’ Tony looked up, surprised, as his father’s Lincoln suddenly tore around the corner. ‘I’ll explain later.’

The car came to a stop right next to them. Howard got out. ‘In the car, right now. Both of you.’ His eyes flicked down to Tony’s chest, then his neck, and then his face. There was probably blood on all three spots.

Tony staggered to his feet, with Rhodey’s help, and the two of them stumbled into the back of the Lincoln.

Howard walked over and looked down at Monica’s body. His expression darkened. _Wouldn’t you know it. A fucking Black Widow!_

Somehow Tony didn’t think Rhodey would be in as much trouble as he thought he would.

***

Rhodey sat on the couch in the Stark living room and listened to Tony’s story.

Maria Stark was currently running damage control, keeping the media from getting wind of or publishing the incident or whatever. Howard Stark was running around, talking to the military and the intelligence community – the latter of the two surprsied him. Tony finished his story and then sat back, allowing him to absorb what he’d just heard.

‘So, you have an alien artefact, called the Soul Stone, secreted in your body?’ Rhodey started by checking his understanding of what he’d just been told.

‘Yes.’

‘And you were approached by the personifications of life and death in the universe so they could explain this to you?’

‘Yup.’

‘Because there’s this intergalactic tyrant called Thanos looking for them, who basically kills everybody and everything because he’s got the hots for the personification of death?’

‘Uh huh.’

‘And your two years of “globe-trotting” was really you learning how to use the Soul Stone from the only other people on Earth who have an Infinity Stone, called the Masters of the Mystic Arts.’

‘Ya-huh.’

‘And that’s how you came back from the dead.’

‘Ya.’

Rhodey dropped his head into his hands. ‘Hoo-kay! You know if I hadn’t just seen you come back from the dead, I wouldn’t believe a word of this right?’

‘Why do you think I didn’t tell anyone until they saw proof?’ Tony asked. ‘There are some people I don’t want knowing, but that’s beside the point.’

Rhodey nodded. ‘So what else can you do? Or are you just functionally immortal?’

‘No, the Soul Stone has a thing with absorbing souls, hence the name,’ Tony explained. ‘I can also read minds, telport, and I have matter manipulation and energy manipulation.’

'So why didn’t you use it to stop that bitch?’ Rhodey demanded.

‘They’re not my powers,’ Tony said. ‘I don’t want to get dependant on them. If I’m gonna survive, I want to survive on my own merits.’

Rhodey opened his mouth, clearly to point out that if not for those powers, he _wouldn’t_ have survived. Then he changed his mind. ‘So...mind reading?’

‘Yeah. I just hear what’s going through your head in the moment.’

Rhodey nodded his head. ‘And your dad?’

Tony was silent for a moment. ‘I think I was wrong.’

The door to the living room opened and Howard walked out. ‘Rhodes, there’s a car waiting outside.’

‘He’s not gonna get in trouble is he, dad?’ Tony asked.

‘I doubt it,’ Howard said. ‘That bitch was a Russian spy.’

Did he find that out just now?

***

Tony waited until later in the evening, when everything had settled down before he asked. ‘Russian spy?’

Howard and Maria were both in the room with him. In the old days, Tony would have been confused. With the benefit of hearing their thoughts though, he knew it was because an assassin had actually targeted him. They were scared and nervous – and maybe even a little bit paranoid, so he’d be having them breathing down his neck for a while.

Howard didn’t look up from the file in his lap. ‘A Black Widow, specifically.’

‘And what’s a Black Widow when she’s at home?’

Howard gave a bitter smirk. ‘The Black Widow program was founded in the forties. They were spy assassins that were made up of women and the Black Widow moniker was a title that was passed from one to the next. It was founded on the idea that their targets would never see them coming on the grounds that they were women.’

Tony looked at his father curiously. ‘You seem to know a lot about them.’

His mother answered that one. ‘They liked sending them after your father before we were married.’

‘I learned to recognise them.’ Howard shrugged. ‘Skirt hiked up, neckline pulled down. Zero self-respect, but so much confidence that they think they’re qualified to do everything and get away with it. They always get right in your personal space as fast as they can and try to convince you they’re an easy lay – they are, but they’re just as likely to slit your throat when they’re done. You run into any more, be aware of the fact that everything they do and say is manipulation.’

Nice to know. ‘You mean they can’t turn it off?’

‘I’m quite sure of it, yeah. I’ll give you the file on the ones I’ve met later.’ _The boy’s better to know what he’s looking for if they’re not as gone as we previously thought. I don’t care what Peg says._

Now there was a can of worms.

***

‘She failed.’

‘Better it is she was killed on the field. I would have loved to get my hands on her.’

‘The boy still needs to be taken out. His father is beginning to ignore Agent Carter’s protests. He even took the dossier S.H.I.E.L.D. had on the Black Widow program, against her will, and showed it to him.’

‘The we shall exterminate the entire family. Wake the Asset.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life anonymously called Howard from a pay phone and told him what had happened. He responded by rushing to the scene upon hearing "tried to kill" and "Tony" in the same sentence.
> 
> Next chapter: Howard starts getting clued in.


	5. The Winter Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second assassination attempt is made.
> 
> HYDRA loses more than just an Asset.

It’d only been three days since the Black Widow incident.

Howard Stark was arguing with somebody over the phone – Peggy Carter. Tony didn’t know how he’d missed it before. Peg had a nasty tendency to call up at _her_ convenience. Whether that be during mealtimes, in the dead of night, or whenever she felt like it, it didn’t matter. Tony hadn’t seen Peg since before he left for MIT but it was clear from this shit, and his father’s aggravated thoughts on the matter, led Tony to the belief that she thought the world should be at her beck and call.

Tony wondered how much better his childhood would have been without the influence of Peggy Carter.

Right now, it appeared, she was arguing with Howard about his giving Tony the dossier which was currently sitting in front of him. Tony rolled his eyes as he scooped up another forkful of pie. Now she was apparently arguing that Tony had no business looking at anything to do with the Black Widow program.

‘Yes, he damn well does!’ Howard just about yelled into the phone. ‘He was _attacked_ by one! Maybe instead of arguing with me, you might want to look into who the next one is!’

The argument went on for another ten minutes before Howard just hung up on her. He looked around and frowned before setting the phone down off the hook. Tony bit his bottom lip himself. ‘How’s Jarvis doing anyway?’

‘Hanging in,’ Howard said. ‘They’re not dead sure they can get rid of the cancer, though. Say he waited too long to get checked out.’

Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose. Why did that man have to be so damn loyal to them that he waited over a year to get checked out when the symptoms first showed up? He was actually kind of afraid that the next time he saw Death, he might be looking at a walking skeleton. Still, there wasn’t a lot he could do about it – or any of them could really. Even the best treatment money could buy might not be enough to save him.

Tony headed upstairs to his room an hour and a half later. He sat down at the computer. ‘J, you up?’

The computer flared to life, a golden interface appearing on the screen. ‘For you, sir,’ it said in Edwin Jarvis’s voice, ‘always.’

‘Right,’ Tony said. ‘Let’s continue working on your code and see what we can come up with, huh?’

‘Of course, sir.’ The screen changed.

His father had become aware of the AI that Tony was building when Jarvis had mentioned to him, before he went into hospital, that Tony had asked to use his voiceprint. It was one of the things Howard had _never_ been critical on. Instead, he’d been curious, and eager to see if a self-learning AI could really be created.

Just A Really Very Intelligent System, or JARVIS, was coming along nicely.

Tony feel asleep at the computer.

***

He moved like a ghost.

The Soldier had his mission. Pulling out a specially made device, he scanned the Long Island mansion. Three life forms inside. All three were upstairs. Bypassing the security system, he slipped into the house. Then he headed up the stairs. The first target was the boy, who was his primary target. It was more important he be eliminated than the parents.

The Soldier drew out his gun and twisted the silencer onto the nozzle.

***

Tony was suddenly woken up by the computer under his cheek blaring out an alarm. He lifted his head and saw, in the blank screen, the reflection of a man behind him. The man was tall with long, scraggly brown hair and his entire face was concealed. He was turning a gun to Tony’s back and his thoughts...were unnatural. The man pulled the trigger and Tony teleported out of the way.

All of this happened in the space of a second.

Tony materialised in the hallway outside his room. He took the time the other guy was looking for him to study him. His thoughts would sound more in place in a computer program than in a human head. He had no knowledge of any identity or sense of self. But he did have a fear of torture if he failed in his mission – which was to kill Tony and his parents, and then make it look like an accident.

_Hell, no!_

The person – who identified himself only as “the Soldier” suddenly realised where Tony was. In the time it took him to turn, Tony decided what he needed to do. If they were sending this guy after them, he had to be better than the Black Widow. When one thing failed, it was more logical to upgrade your attempt, rather than downgrade. So Tony had no way of getting out of using his powers if he wanted his family to live.

The Soldier went to raise his gun again, but Tony slapped a hand into the wall next to him. A strip of the wall shot out and knocked the gun out of the Soldier’s hand. Tony returned the wall to its previous state and pushed a hand forward, palm out. A beam of orange light shot across the distance and sent the Soldier flying back – and over the balcony to the floor below.

Tony teleported down and then hopped out of the way as the Soldier came at him with a pocket knife. With a quick energy blast, Tony knocked the knife away. The Soldier charged, much faster than Tony was expecting, and he felt himself tumble back, the coffee table shattering under his back. He was more, focused, however, on the metal hand around his throat. Holy Shit! Not good. Tony’s arms were pinned, but that was little matter. He just teleported out from under him.

_Target evaded attack. New approach required._

The more he heard from this guy’s head, the more Tony was convinced he was brainwashed. So, he decided to check. Back when he’d finally mastered his telepathy, the Ancient One had forged a link between his mind and hers so he could call for help should he ever need it. He reached for it now. _I think I’ve got a brainwashed assassin here. Not sure what to do about it._

The Ancient One was quick to respond. _We’re on our way._

Tony dodged a punch thrown at him by the metal fist. The Soldier snarled. As he went to charge again, though, a golden portal opened directly between them. The Ancient One stepped out, followed by Mordo and Wong.

Before the Soldier could make any movements, Mordo and Wong made complicated and precise gestures with their hands. Golden binds seized his wrists and sent him flying back to be pinned against the wall. The Ancient One then walked over, ignoring his snarling and struggling, and lifted a hand. She pressed her thumb to his forehead, like she’d done with Tony two years ago. Her eyes narrowed.

‘You were right,’ she said. ‘He’s been tortured and brainwashed for years. He has no memory of his previous life and does not even think for himself any longer. This man is a weapon to be pointed and fired.’

Tony plopped down on the couch. ‘Can you fix it?’

‘It will take time, but it can be done.’ The Ancient One opened another set of portals with a set of practiced hand motions. The Soldier was hauled through by Wong and Mordo. The Ancient One followed them through and closed the portal behind them. Tony huffed again before he became aware of the alarmed and confused thoughts coming from the balcony. ‘How long have you been standing there?’ He knew for a fact that his father had seen him teleport, because Howard was currently trying to work out how.

‘Long enough to see that,’ Howard said. ‘What was that?’ He didn’t look but he knew his father was coming down the stairs (like a normal person).

‘Another assassination attempt,’ Tony stated the obvious.

‘No.’ Howard came around and folded his arms. ‘I meant those people with the...’ He winced. ‘...glowing circle things.’

‘Oh, them.’ Tony rolled up to his feet. ‘They’re this order that operates out of Nepal. Don’t ask me how they do the...glowing circle things.’ Huh. It was difficult to say. The inner-scientist in him cringed at the idea – and he’d lived there for two years. ‘I just presume the science required to explain it hasn’t been discovered yet.’

Howard’s thoughts sweltered relief as such a statement. To him, undiscovered science was much more acceptable than what it looked like. Tony was just the same. ‘When did you meet them? During your globetrotting.’

‘Yeah,’ Tony said. ‘And they told me all about Aunt Peg’s Raft, so I wasn’t exactly inclined to share their existence.’ Tony walked past his father. ‘I’m going to bed. Goodnight.’

 _Raft?_ Howard wondered. What raft?

***

Oh, Howard found out what Raft.

Certainly, he had to hack into the highest levels of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database, but he found out. And he was disgusted. Knowing this, and after taking off with some transcripts on the topic of the Raft, he wasn’t inclined to tell Peg about those easterners, or about the fact that he had witnessed Tony, for lack of a better word, teleporting.

(Still had to work out how the kid did that.)

Not that Howard wasn’t grateful for it – it’d saved Tony’s life. All the same, it left him wondering just what other skeletons Peg had in the closet. Howard knew that if Peg found out he knew...well, he was beginning to think that Maria was right. They weren’t good people to be around; they did monopolise his time and resources – time and resources that should have been put into his company and son.

Howard was beginning to see the monstrosity he’d helped create, which easily dwarfed even his Midnight Gas. And, like the Midnight Gas, this beast would be destroyed. Slowly, and carefully. Howard was a businessman first, so he started, expanding his company. He planned to let Tony take up the robotics division which had been moved to Pennsylvania, because he’d been practically begging Howard for a chance for years.

Peg had protested, of course – as if she knew the first thing about business! _‘He’s just a child, Howard! He hasn’t got the maturity!’_

Yeah, well, that child was attacked by two of the deadliest assassins in the world and came out on top. Because they now knew who had been sent. Tony had been talking to the easterners (Howard still had no idea who they were) and, after a while, whatever had been done seemed to wear off, leaving a very confused and despondent man behind. He had spoken and identified as the Asset, the Soldier, or, most interestingly, the Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier was a ghost in the intelligence community. He was considered something of a myth because there were no verified sightings of him. Yet here he was, captured by a 19 year old boy with no combat experience and a Nepalese-based order. It was likely that no one verified any sightings of him because he killed them all. But that was the result of someone else’s work.

Then they’d come back to Tony because the Winter Soldier had remembered his name. The name had caused Howard to freeze in shock, because it was the name of a man who was supposed to be long-since dead. And it was what led him to coming to the home base of the order with Tony to see the man’s face himself.

Tony was clearly familiar with the layout of the place, even calling it by name: the Kamar-Taj. He had clearly not merely “stumbled” upon it. Howard suspected his son had been here long enough to know the place like the back of his hand. As they passed over the courtyard, Howard looked down to the several people that seemed to be going through exercises of some kind. Several of them were even producing small sparks of gold.

‘What are they doing?’ Howard asked.

‘They’re trainees of the order,’ Tony said. ‘Most of them have been through some kind of game-changing experience. They come here to get hope by being taught the...’ Tony hesitated. ‘...the Mystic Arts.’

‘Mystic Arts?’ Howard asked doubtfully.

‘That’s what they call it.’ Tony shrugged. ‘And something’s definitely going on there. Just nod and smile.’

Howard shook his head. ‘So what were you doing here?’

‘I just found it,’ Tony said. ‘Interesting place. Stuck around a bit. Moved on.’

Howard sighed and accepted that – for now. Tony led him through to an area where a small group of people were waiting. Two of them, Howard recognised from the incident the night the Winter Soldier attacked. The person in front, though, was a bald woman. Tony stopped them in front of her.

‘Welcome back, Tony,’ the woman said. She looked at Howard. ‘And this must be your father.’

‘Yeah, I am,’ Howard said. ‘You said that man is James Buchannan Barnes?’

‘He is,’ the woman said.

‘I thought Barnes fell from a train in the War.’

The woman gave a light smile. ‘It would appear he was fished out of the river below by HYDRA and then tortured and brainwashed into becoming the Winter Soldier. You may ask him yourself if you wish. I have deactivated the Winter Soldier within him.’

‘How?’ Tony asked.

‘The Winter Soldier was activated by a set of code words, all of which are in the Russian language,’ the woman said. ‘I rendered his brain incapable of hearing any Russian at all. Instead, he will hear only nonsensical warbling. We have done all we can. Now it would be beneficial for him to be delivered to a psychiatric hospital to undergo treatment for the trauma he was subjected to.’

Howard nodded – well, he certainly wasn’t handing him over to Peg. That was for sure. One of the men – a heavy-set man who looked to be Chinese – gestured to a door. Howard walked over and stepped in. He was aware that he wasn’t the only one in the room. Rather, he’d been followed in by Tony and two others.

And there was Bucky Barnes.

He was sitting on a chair, eyes closed as head dipped. Howard was vaguely aware of his son taking a step back. Howard, instead walked over. ‘Sergeant Barnes?’

Bucky opened his eyes and looked up. ‘Howard?’ He sighed. ‘It’s been a long time since I was called that.’

Howard slowly nodded. ‘Why did you break into my house?’

Barnes sighed and averted his eyes, as if ashamed of what he was saying – and he should be. ‘I don’t know. When they sent me to kill people, they weren’t exactly prone to telling me why they wanted those people dead. They just wanted you dead. You, and your whole family.’

 _Oh, hell no!_ ‘Who’s they?’ Howard asked.

‘HYDRA.’ Bucky shook his head. ‘After the Red Skull...they moved into the shadows. They’re still there, Howard. They’re still there and they’re building their power. That’s how I knew what kind of security system you had – how to bypass it.’

‘They’re in S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ Howard murmured, horror gripping him by the throat. How many people did he work with daily that were actually the enemy? Sleeper HYDRA agents?

‘Not just S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ Bucky said. ‘They’re everywhere. In the government, in the military. It doesn’t matter. They’re absolutely everywhere but S.H.I.E.L.D...S.H.I.E.L.D. is their strongest foothold.’

That meant...he had to get rid of S.H.I.E.L.D. The thing he’d helped build...well, it was nice to know he was right. It was more destructive than Midnight Gas. ‘What about Peggy Carter?’

Barnes shook his head. ‘I’ve been remembering more and more with the healing they’ve been doing up here.’ He waved his hand at his head. ‘They’re intimidated by her, but Carter’s arrogance is something they’ve always made very good use of. I once heard one of my handlers say “she thinks she’s unbeatable, so tricking her is easy – all you have to do is agree with her”.’

Regrettably, that was right.

Howard sighed. He’d have to think about this. ‘All right. We’ll find a place for you, Barnes. Any idea where HYDRA does _not_ have a foot in?’

‘Switzerland,’ Barnes said. ‘They’ve never been able to get any political or militaristic influence in Switzerland. Just like in the war, it’s too neutral.’

***

Bucky Barnes was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland, with only those the Starks cleared having any access to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As far as computers go, I'm pretty sure they were being used in the late 80s, but only by rich people or certain organisations - I don't doubt S.H.I.E.L.D. would have been one of these organisations.
> 
> The Ancient One has placed healing wards on Bucky's mind, which is why he's able to remember much more so much quicker.
> 
> Next little adventure: Tony uses his engineering genius instead of his powers (Yay!).


	6. Agent 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An energy burst gets Tony's and Rhodey's attention.

**Harrisburg, Pennsylvania**  
Rhodey chuckled as he watched Tony practically prance around the lab.

Of course, he had reason to be happy. He’d finally gotten what he’d been asking for since he finished at MIT. Howard had finally let him work on the greatly-neglected robotics division of SI. Of course, as Tony had told him, _‘He’s looking for excuses to pull funds out of S.H.I.E.L.D., and eventually withdraw entirely.’_

Rhodey didn’t even know why he got involved with them in the first place.

Wasn’t that kind of bad for an arms manufacturer to be that deeply involved in an intelligence agency?

Well, one way to find out. Rhodey plopped down next to Tony as he was sifting through the data on the factory computer. The workers moved around the lab in an enthusiastic fervour. ‘So, why did your old man get in with Carter’s bunch anyway?’

‘I did ask,’ Tony said. ‘He told me that she’d been in on Project Rebirth too, and she was one of the few women he met, back then, who didn’t throw themselves at him. So he respected her. In ’46, a bunch of his more dangerous weapons were stolen from his house – the Manhattan one – and he was framed for selling them. He called on Carter to clear his name.’

‘Did she?’

‘Oh, yeah. Well, kinda. Way dad told the story, he actually ended up clearing his own name when he volunteered to be bait for the thieves. Anyway, that was when Jarvis got a taste for, as he put it, adventure. She ended up taking him on a few adventures which, of course, ended up dad into it. Over time, Jarvis got less and less involved in her little...adventures and dad got more and more involved. He considered her a friend that he was helping.’

‘And then he got pulled in too deep.’ Rhodey nodded. ‘And he only just realised it?’

‘Kinda puts things into perspective when you find out your friend misappropriated money you offered them to violate the human rights of enhanced individuals, doesn’t it?’ Tony mused.

‘That’s why you don’t want to tell Carter about your powers.’

‘Exactly.’

Suddenly, the lights dimmed. Tony and Rhodey looked up.

‘What was that?’ Rhodey asked.

‘Give me a moment.’ Tony started work on the computer interface, typing away until he came upon the answer. ‘Huh. There was a power surge in a facility outside the city. It sucked energy from every other place with a large power supply.’

‘Could it be another Infinity Stone?’ Rhodey asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Tony said. ‘But we better check it out.’

***

Tony strapped a band to his wrist as Rhodey drove them to the facility. He had Rhodey park a few blocks out. The two of them got out and kept low as they darted towards the building. Tony passed Rhodey a few hand-made bombs and grenades. They slipped over to the hill that overlooked the stone fence that circled the whole place.

Tony pulled a device out of his satchel.

‘What’s that?’ Rhodey asked.

‘I’m linking my AI to the place,’ Tony said. ‘He can put all the security cameras on a loop.’

Just a few years ago, Rhodey would have considered it strange to give an artificial intelligence a gender and refer to them like they were people. But he’d seen Tony’s bots. Those things were more like puppies than robots. So he had a feeling that Tony’s AIs were really all as close to life forms as any machines could get.

‘Okay, we good?’ Tony asked into the device. It was then that Rhodey noticed he was wearing headphones. He nodded and pulled them down, hooking them around his neck. ‘Let’s go.’

The two of them ran forward, scaled the stone wall and landed on the other side. Rhodey was surprised at how fit Tony was, having never been in military training or any other kind of physically taxing training. _Unless, of course, his time in the Kamar-Taj included physical fitness training._

‘It did.’

Rhodey was still getting somewhat used to his best friend’s telepathic ability. On one hand, it got annoying sometimes. On the other, it saved a hell of a lot of time. He didn’t bother responding. He just threw one grenade in the direction of a goon that was running at them.

The grenade exploded. Another guy went flying away from Tony as he hit him with something or other. He tumbled through the overgrowth that had been allowed to take over the yard they’d come into. There were a few more but they went down quickly. Tony and Rhodey ran up the steps to the back door of the building. Tony lifted the headphones again. This time, he flicked a mike stick down. ‘J, what have we got?’

The answer made him grin. ‘You’ve activated all their magnetic locks, huh? Great!’ He turned to Rhodey and flicked the mike down. ‘We’re good to go.’ He then turned to the security system, hit a few buttons, pulled another device out of his pocket, jabbed the door catch with it, and then pushed open the door.

‘What is that?’ Rhodey asked as they slipped in.

‘Anti-magnetic pulse,’ Tony said. ‘Does exactly what it says on the box.’ He moved through the base, leading Rhodey. They moved through with only a few interruptions – all of which received one of Tony’s home-made explosives to send them to sleep. Tony’s AI – J? – directed them through the building and into a room buried deep in the bowels of the place.

As soon as they entered, Rhodey took in the place. It was sparse and clinical. There was a dome-shaped thing in the middle of the floor with several monitors – for heartbeat, temperature, brainwave, and respiration – around the dome thing. As Rhodey slowly wandered over, Tony went to the computer console. Whatever he found, within a few minutes, made him freeze.

‘Um...Rhodey, what does it say on that thing?’

‘I don’t know,’ Rhodey said. ‘I can’t read Russian.’

‘I can.’ Tony walked over and crouched down. He nodded. ‘As I thought.’ He stood up and flicked the mike down again. ‘J, send a direct call to my dad’s office, will you?’ A moment later, Tony spoke. ‘Dad? Yeah, I know, I know, I know.’ He headed back over to the computer console and Rhodey could no longer hear what he was saying. He did hear the “I’m sending it to you now”, but he didn’t specify what.

Rhodey reached down and lifted the lid of the dome. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. There, inside the capsule, there was a small baby girl, shivering and whimpering. She was wearing nothing but a diaper. Rhodey looked around frantically, searching for something to wrap her up in and get her warm.

Tony pointed to a closet Rhodey hadn’t noticed. Rhodey rushed over and yanked it open. Inside, there were blankets. Rhodey grabbed one and rushed back to the infant girl. He picked her up and wrapped her up in the blanket. She continued to grizzle but the sound tapered off as she curled into the warmth.

Tony walked back over. ‘Yeah, her name’s written on the capsule. I presume her father named her.’

Howard obviously asked exactly what Rhodey wanted to know.

Tony answered, ‘Because her name is Sharon Margaret Carter.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure where in NY Howard was living in S1 of AC - I don't think it was specified - so I just went with Manhattan.
> 
> In the comments section of Ana's last chapter of Reckoning (18) we got to talking about how Sharon is a better character as a HYDRA agent, and about where she could have come from if Peg's only sibling was killed in the war. This idea came into my head. Let's be honest: HYDRA would do it.


	7. Sharon Carter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peg gains parental responsibility over a little girl.

The flight back to New York was greatly uneventful.

Rhodey kept an eye on Sharon while Tony tinkered with some odds and ends. Somehow he was using them to connect with his AI. When Rhodey had asked, Tony had answered, ‘He’s still a young AI. I want to make sure they can’t hack him from when he was in their systems.’ It wasn’t a dumb idea either – and it was such a Tony Stark thing to think about.

But they still had a baby to worry about.

***

 **Long Island, NY**  
‘No, no, no, no! A thousand times, no!’

Howard watched Peg pace the length of his living room. Despite how horrible this was, a part of him was deeply amused. Maybe now she’d come to understand just how hard parenthood was. It might take a while but it would definitely be worth it. Maria had gone to pick the boys up, as well as the child they now had with them.

(She was also surely going to feed the child and get her a new wardrobe.)

That was about an hour ago. Howard huffed, partially in exasperation at her denial. ‘Peg, you’ve seen the files, you’ve seen the footage, and you’ve seen what they did to your brother. You saw what they did to _her_. You know it did happen, so stop denying it. If you must, have a goddamn DNA test and confirm it.’

Peg ground her teeth. ‘Michael died in the war. It is physically impossible for that child to be his!’

Howard closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘Peg, I looked his status up. He was listed as “Missing In Action; Presumed Dead” when the War ended. But they never found a body. The evidence we have suggests that he was captured and experimented on by HYDRA; that he was tricked into conceiving a child in 1947 and stood up and shot in 1948.’

Peg shook her head. She went to argue, but the front door opened and there was chatter as Tony and Rhodey walked in. They made a beeline for the kitchen. Maria followed after them, carrying a small infant, of about two or three years, on her hip. She smiled, in a purposefully sanguine way. ‘Have a niece,’ she said, depositing the child into Peggy’s arms.  
Peg stared down at the girl and her eyes widened.

‘Pretty hard to deny it now, isn’t it?’ Tony remarked, swaggering in, much to Howard’s amusement.

Rhodes followed him.

‘It makes no sense!’ Peg insisted, glaring at him. ‘There is no legitimate reason why this child should be my brother’s! It’s impossible!’

‘No, it isn’t.’ Tony opened the satchel he had over his shoulder and pulled out a set of papers. ‘They had cryonic suspension tech. They look like they’ve been developing it for a while.’ He handed the folder to Howard.

 _Probably something they developed on Barnes._ The file gave all the details on the cryonic suspension that the girl had been subjected to – and the enhancements that had made it possible. Yes, it was all alarmingly obvious what they’d been trying to do with the girl. A part of Howard felt pity for Peg – having to take in a niece who’d been experimented on for such a purpose. The other part was enjoying this (especially with how critical she’d always been of his parenting skills). Not that his parenting skills were great, but she talked like it was easy. _Let’s see you put your money where your mouth is._

‘Why the hell would they do that?’ Peg demanded.

Sharon just looked up at her curiously.

‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’ Tony asked, plopping down.

‘It is?’ Rhodey asked, looking at him in confusion.

‘Yes, it is,’ Howard said. ‘They wanted to gain control of S.H.I.E.L.D. in its entirety.’

‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous!’ Peggy scoffed.

‘Ridiculous?!’ The kid managed to turn the scoff right back at her. ‘Do you know how often I get judged because my last name is “Stark”? Every single day. Sharon was meant to be HYDRA’s dummy leader for S.H.I.E.L.D.’

‘Howard!’ Peg snapped.

‘I didn’t tell him, Peg,’ Howard said calmly. ‘I didn’t have to.’ No, Tony had found the data after he’d heard Barnes mention S.H.I.E.L.D.

‘As I was saying,’ Tony pulled her attention back to him. ‘The idea was clearly to have her grow up under the HYDRA indoctrination, enter S.H.I.E.L.D. – probably conceal her last name, claiming she didn’t want to be defined by her connection to you. And it would have gotten her up through the ranks, trust me.’

Peg shook her head. ‘As far as I would have known, I had no niece.’

How did people miss the obvious like that? ‘Which is exactly why they froze her. She was probably born in 1948. Two years later, the SSR was falling and we were making waves on building up S.H.I.E.L.D. They knew that you had no niece, to your knowledge. So they froze her, to preserve her at this age. She’s been unfrozen now because...well, where are you going to be in fifteen to twenty years?’

‘Dead, or retired,’ Tony said.

‘And, therefore, out of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s chain of command.’ Howard looked her right in the eye. ‘Me, I’d be dead or close to it. And we are the last two people within S.H.I.E.L.D. who could say “Peggy Carter had no niece”. So under the belief that this girl was your niece, true as it may be, she would work her way up the ranks and eventually become Director. Bang! HYDRA has complete command of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

Peg’s jaw worked as she tried to find a way to dispute that.

‘If they hadn’t frozen her.’ Tony went on. ‘She’d have had to wait until you retired or died, which could take so long she’d be an old lady when that happened. And an old lady can’t come into an organisation like S.H.I.E.L.D. as a new recruit.’

‘Yeah, really.’ Rhodey shook his head. ‘That’s sick, but it’s brilliant.’

‘And it would have worked,’ Howard said. ‘There would have been no one to get suspicious of her – no one except Tony. How hard is it to keep away from a single person?’

‘You have to face the facts, Peg,’ Maria said. ‘Your brother spent some time as a POW before he was killed and he was forced to conceive a child, who was intended to be weaponised. You are the only family this little girl has left. She’s a baby, she’s innocent, and she does not deserve to be abandoned.’

Trust Maria to kick where it hurt.

Peg snapped her mouth shut. She looked down at the child again. ‘I think I will have that DNA test done.’

Howard smirked to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know most of us think of 2-3 year olds as toddlers, but, frankly, HYDRA weren't big on getting Sharon to her milestones so she can't walk yet - hence she hasn't reached the "toddler" stage.
> 
> I got the idea that Sharon could have been slightly enhanced from the scene in CW where Tony, Natasha and Sharon taken on WS. Only Tony (a known baseline human) sustains injury. Sharon and Natasha are merely swatted back but they're actually unharmed (Don't quite know if Sharon got knocked out when she got knocked back).
> 
> Either way, the way their cryonic suspension works, I'd say she'd have to be enhanced, at least somewhat, to survive it.
> 
> And, yes, when Peg sees Sharon she realises the girl has Michael's eyes.


	8. Attack on Wakanda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Invasion begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I found this on tumblr yesterday:
> 
> https://78.media.tumblr.com/fffa4ba74fa2ad0e04491103e110c472/tumblr_p3now4aXVS1r057rfo2_540.gif
> 
> Later on (late a couple of pages later) it was referred to as Tony's extremis suit.
> 
> Anyone else think the comics storyline where Tony's suit becomes part of his body and can be called and repaired at will is actually happening?

It’d been a long time since Tony had walked into any of the living rooms to find his parents sitting together on the couch. There was some old movie playing on cable. Tony wasn’t sure but he stopped and leaned against the doorframe. His father and been pulling away from S.H.I.E.L.D. more and more and, as a consequence, he was home more and more.

‘How’s Sharon doing?’ his mom asked.

‘Hm.’ Howard nodded his head. ‘Gotta say, it’s nice to be able to lecture her on parenting for once.’

What? Seriously? Tony knew his dad wasn’t the best father in the world – actually pretty bad at it, really – but Peg...well, despite what she’d said in that interview (it’d been recommended by his father’s PR people, he’d been told) had never had _any_ husband, never mind kids. She’d been too consumed by her work. Jarvis had told him of a few people (Daniel Sousa, Jason Wilkes) that had been interested, but she’d never been able to commit. What did she know about raising children?

Well, she was about to learn at least.

‘What’d she do?’ Maria asked.

‘Apparently, she hired a live-in nanny – who turned out to be HYDRA.’

‘You picked that up quick.’

‘A blind man in Venezuela saw that coming,’ Howard said.

Tony grinned to himself and rolled his eyes. HYDRA had wanted to indoctrinate Sharon to be their dummy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and they had altered their plans before. It made sense that the girl finding her way back to her aunt would only be seen as a minor setback and they’d try to get to her some other way.

‘I suppose it’s finally sunk in that HYDRA are still around then,’ Maria mused.

‘Yes, and she doesn’t like it.’ Howard shook his head. ‘I’m 99% sure that Fury isn’t HYDRA, and he’s paranoid enough that now he’s scrutinising everybody around them.’

‘We’re trusting Nick Fury with the well-being of a child?’ Maria rubbed the bridge of her nose. ‘Oh, dear God!’

‘That’s as good as you’re going to get.’

Tony didn’t know who Nick Fury was, but it sounded like he was a paranoid arse. Tony left his parents and went back upstairs. He walked into his room and reached underneath his bed. He had a feeling – it was kind of like a sense of foreboding. And it was coming from a spot behind his stomach (giving him a pretty good idea where the Soul Stone was). So Tony had picked up on his “projects”.

Tony opened the crate he’d pulled from under his bed. A blue glow was cast on his face.

***

 **Wakanda**  
They came without warning.

The most technologically isolated nation in the world had thought itself impregnable. But these people, if they could be called that, descended upon them from the sky itself. It came and it destroyed everything. The warriors of the nation, especially the Dora Milaje, attempted to fight back, but they found themselves utterly outmatched and falling like dominoes. Even the Black Panther himself stepped out – only to meet the same gruesome demise.

And Wakanda had no allies to call to for help.

***

 **Long Island, NY**  
The bedroom phone rang.

Howard Stark groaned. It’d been quite a few weeks since he’d heard that. Still, he rolled away from his wife and flicked on the bedside lamp. If the caller ID was Peg or S.H.I.E.L.D., he was unplugging the phone and going back to sleep. It wasn’t. It was the Pentagon. With a heavy sigh, Howard picked up the phone. ‘Hello?’

‘Mr. Stark, sorry to call you at this hour.’

Well, at least he got an apology. ‘Yeah. What is it?’

‘We need your expertise, ASAP. Wakanda has just been wiped off the map.’

And they now had Howard’s full attention.

***

 **Kathmandu, Nepal**  
The sorcerers moved with purpose through the Kamar-Taj.

The Ancient One opened up the case that held Agamotto’s old regalia and took the Eye from inside. Kathmandu was a city of roughly 500,000 people. Thanos would attack the city for the Infinity Stone they held. Therefore, it had to be moved somewhere safe. Hopefully, the red herring that Wakanda had turned itself into would keep him distracted for a few days. The Ancient One looked over her shoulder.

‘Wong?’

Wong nodded and held up the device that Tony had supplied them with.

It was easy to see why the Soul Stone had chosen him.

***

 **Long Island, New York**  
Tony stood outside his father’s workshop.

‘You’re not suggesting it’s aliens?’ the man from the Pentagon demanded.

Howard’s mind flashed back to a man called Woodrow McCord Jr., who’d been abducted by aliens (along with his entire family) as a child and escaped, then spent the rest of his life fighting them. He’d been a friend of Howard’s. Instead of talking about Woody though, Howard just looked pointedly at the photographs on the workbench. ‘And what would you call them?’ He didn’t give them a chance to answer. ‘Besides, who else would have the technology to get the jump on Wakanda like that? We’re just lucky that they’re clearly looking for something.’

‘Looking for something?’ an aide asked. ‘What do you mean?’

‘They wiped out everyone,’ Howard said. ‘Barring, of course, anyone who may have escaped to the jungle. And now they’re drilling into the earth. They’re throwing aside the rarest metal on earth like it’s nothing. They’re clearly looking for something.’

The Pentagon man nodded. ‘Well, that’s good for us then. It buys us time to work out what to do about them. How are the weapons looking?’

‘Not too good.’ Howard scratched the back of his head. ‘The generic army can apparently be beaten but they’ve got a sort of elite corps that seems immune to the kind of firepower Wakanda threw at them – and that’s way beyond anything I could ever lob at them. I will try to come up with something, but I can’t make any promises.’

The Pentagon guy pressed his lips together. ‘We’ll keep you posted, Mr. Stark.’

The whole bunch of men walked out, brushing past Tony with scowls on their faces. Tony knew his father knew he was there and hadn’t drawn attention to it because he figured he couldn’t hide an obliteration of an entire country, he shouldn’t bother trying. Now, he spoke up. ‘You can come in, Tony.’

Tony stepped into the lab and walked over to the work desk. The photos in front of his father were Satellite images. Despite how blurry they were they clearly showed individuals who certainly didn’t look human, and they were using tech that was miles ahead of anything on earth. Tony looked at his father.

Howard scoffed. ‘Peg’s probably going to try to take them on.’ He shook his head. ‘Stupid woman never did acknowledge when she was in over her head.’

An incident flashed through Howard’s mind – and it nearly made Tony scoff. Apparently, some woman called Whitney Frost had, back in the 40s, acquired superhuman strength. Peggy Carter – who was unenhanced and always had been – had decided a good response to her was to charge at her head-on.

 _Dad’s right,_ Tony thought. _She is lucky to be alive._

‘Wish I knew what they were looking for,’ Howard mused.

Unfortunately, Tony did know – and he was grateful (although he loathed to admit it) that they had started in completely the wrong place. He nodded and turned, heading out. ‘Might want to start by moving the Tesseract away from the city.’ Tony left the workshop. He was surprised his father didn’t call him back.

Instead, he heard, _Boy knows something. I don’t like that._ Tony paused just out of sight and waited to see what his father would do.

A moment later he heard the phone be picked up and then, ‘Fury, I need you to move the Tesseract to an isolated location? Why? Call it a hunch.’

***

‘My Lord, we have removed the first layer. There is no trace of the Soul Stone. But this planet is approximately 4 and half billion years old. There is much of the earth to drill through. I am entirely confident that we shall find the Stone within days.’

‘Continue.’

‘We have located the Space Stone and the Time Stone. Both have been moved outside of major population centres.’

Thanos smirked in amusement. They were trying to prevent casualties. Interesting that these primitive people should know enough about what they had in their hands to know that they would be targeted and attacked for them. Still, it would make no difference in the end. Both would end up in his hands along with the Soul Stone.

He would finally complete his Infinity Gauntlet on this primeval rock.


	9. To Arms!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the destruction of Wakanda, the people of the world begin getting nervous.

On an isolated mountainside, the Ancient One watched over her sorcerers as they set the Eye of Agamotto down. It was the sacred duty of the Sorcerers of the Kamar-Taj to defend against all threats of the mystic variety – and to protect the Time Stone. Now they were being called upon to perform their duty, by the personifications of Life and Death themselves.

Whilst this Mad Titan would eventually realise the Infinity Stone he sought under the Nation of Wakanda was not, in fact, there, there was little she could do to help Tony. The Space Stone, she knew, had already been moved out of New York City and to an isolated facility. There was nothing to be done to stop them from acquiring it.

With luck, though, this device of the Starks’ would keep the other Infinity Stones at bay.

The Ancient One stepped into the circle. The Eye of Agamotto had been laid down as if on display. She set the device Tony had given her in the centre of the circle that the neck-chain of the Eye made and activated it. A blue bubble appeared around them, shielding them all from the power of the other Infinity Stones.

The Ancient One then joined the circle. The six sorcerers pressed their fingertips together for a moment. Then, in unison, they pressed their hands down into the ground. While the device, as Tony had warned, defended against harm from the Infinity Stones, it did nothing against attacks of physical force. And so, the sorcerers had to create that barrier. As a result, they would all go into a trance that kept them from moving or growing fatigued in that whole time.

All sacrifices must be made to keep the Time Stone from Thanos’s hands.

They had to believe that Tony _could_ handle this.

***

Things had been going well for Bucky.

With the triggers numbed in his mind, his brain finally had the chance to heal. Memories had slowly started coming back. The people he killed, who had wanted them dead, but he unfortunately didn’t know the reasons HYDRA had wanted them dead. Instead, he just thanked God that he’d been instructed to take out Howard’s kid first. The kid had been able to stop him. He wasn’t sure Howard or his wife would’ve been able to.

In fact he was certain they wouldn’t have.

Teleporting like that, the kid could probably survive anything.

Which brough him up to now.

‘This discharge,’ his doctor had said, ‘is only temporary. We do expect you to return when the crisis is over.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Better he did anyway. Even if the triggers were gone, he was still dangerous.

Bucky was then transported to a UN building. While he’d been in the hospital, he had been catching up on how the world had changed. The UN was miles better than the League of Nations, which had slowly come back into his memory. It was there, the crisis was explained to him.

‘The nation of Wakanda has been attacked and utterly destroyed,’ the Chairman said. ‘Before I continue, Sergeant Barnes, do you remember what Wakanda is?’

Bucky nodded. ‘An isolated country that was the most technologically advanced in the world.’

The Chairman nodded. ‘They were attacked and destroyed within a few short hours. The invaders, which seem to be...’ He cringed. ‘...aliens. They are currently digging through the remains of the country as if searching for something. But they have sent scouts over the rest of the world. Our fear is that once they find whatever it is they’re looking for in Wakanda, they will attack the rest of the world in much the same fashion.’

So, in effect, they were initiating an all-hands-on-deck response.

‘At present, the civilian population has not been informed. They will be informed tomorrow morning and we will begin evacuations to every bunker we can find. In the meantime, we need all those who can fight ready to go. Is that understood?’

‘Yes.’

***

‘It is time to move out.’

‘Which are we attacking?’

‘The Space Stone is undefended. There appear to be a group around the Time Stone.’

‘And the Soul Stone?’

‘Our Lord is digging it up as we speak.’

***

‘Are these the guys?’

Rhodey, as well as the world’s entire military forces had been recalled to their home soil. Rhodey had come to meet Tony as quickly as he could. They stood out of the patio, each nursing a whiskey. The news would be broadcast the very next day and the city-wide evacuations would start. Tony’s bags were already packed inside because the Starks were moving out first thing in the morning.

‘Yeah,’ Tony said. ‘I’ve looked at the satellite images of Thanos.’

‘And?’

‘He’s got three Infinity Stones. He’s got them in a Gauntlet that he’s wearing on his left hand. Mind you, I didn’t see them until I used the infrared.’

‘But why Wakanda?’

‘Simple enough,’ Tony said. ‘Its isolation painted a great big target on the country. Its isolation means its technology was _only_ in Wakanda. There were certain minerals and other materials that could be found _only_ in Wakanda. If they hadn’t been isolationist, Thanos would have had to look harder to find where things like vibranium came from – and that was if he even bothered in the first place.’

‘But if he did, they might’ve had a chance at survival.’ Rhodey shook his head. ‘Their isolation saved them from colonisation but it painted a great big target on their country two centuries later.’

‘Pretty much.’

‘So he decided they must have an Infinity Stone.’ Rhodey looked at him in question.

‘They don’t,’ Tony assured him. ‘But all of the Infinity Stones are now accounted for.’

***

 **Higher Planes**  
There was a knock at her door. ‘Come.’

The door opened and a young-looking man walked in with shoulder-length brown hair. ‘Life. I’ve been told you have my new list.’

‘Hm.’ Life pulled a slip of paper out of thin air and handed it over.

He took it from her and looked it over. ‘You’ve put Howard Stark back on this.’

‘Seems he never lost his inner goodness,’ Life said. ‘Having all of Carter’s bullshit being piled onto him just made it look like he had. Since he’s been pulling away, his previous good humour has started to return. I expect in no time at all he’ll be goofing off in his workshop with his son. It seems pointing that boy towards the Kamar-Taj was the best thing for the whole family.’

The man nodded. ‘And if you hadn’t, they wouldn’t be long for their world.’ He looked up. ‘Speaking of which, how’s your sister doing with the latest influx?’

‘Humph! Yes, the entire nation of Wakanda gets wiped out – like that’s supposed to impress her!’ Life shook her head. ‘Death is putting them all in limbo for the time being.’

‘For what reason?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘No. I recant my question. You two are plotting something. What are you doing?’

Life smiled. ‘Restoring some of the balance.’

***

 **Earth**  
The facility wasn’t very big.

Nick Fury evidentially hadn’t thought much when Howard Stark had told him to shift the Tesseract and had just moved it. But the guards he'd placed around it were young and green. They didn’t know what they were guarding; just that they had their orders. They were completely unprepared for what was coming their way.

One particular guard was a 22 year old called Michael Fabian, who was just doing this until he could get a promotion and get to somewhere else – somewhere more interesting. Instead of standing at attention at the door, he was slumped against the wall at his post, reading a Captain America comic book.

Wouldn’t it be terrific, he mused as he read the adventure, if they found Captain America alive and well and he showed up? He could see his glory rather than the last thing he saw being a sheet of ice rushing up to meet him. It would be an absolute thrill to be able to meet the great man himself.

And he’d definitely put these ugly aliens in their place.

Michael was so busy fantasising that he never saw the laser bolt that punched a hole through his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The man Life is talking to is just someone who decides on rewards or punishments for people after they die. The list Life handed him is a list of people who are to be rewarded.


	10. The Space Stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Space Stone has been stolen.

During World War 2, Howard had himself built a bunker-home on a tiny island just off the coast of New York. The place had been in mothballs for the last 50-odd years. Amazing how quickly you could get a place ready when you had enough money. At the same time the announcement was going over the media, the Starks were leaving their Long Island home for the bunker one.

The bunker was basically a mansion under the ground with reinforced walls, floors and ceilings. Tony walked into his bedroom and dropped his bags. He sat on the edge of the bed and sighed, dropping his hands into his head. He took a deep breath and then dropped back onto the bed, lying there, spread-eagled. He closed his eyes against the tears in his eyes.

Meanwhile, down in the workshop, Howard worked.

Jarvis’s body had given up on him in the night. The nurse who’d called the house had informed them that he’d passed on in his sleep. It was a peaceful way to go, all things considered, and the way things were going, Howard preferred him to go like that. Even now, he worried about his wife and child.

Especially with this.

Fury likely hadn’t wanted him to get a hold of this. Lord knew that whole bunch hated to admit when Howard was right – unless they were trying to induce him into a certain course of action (it was embarrassing how long it’d taken him to realise that). So, they certainly didn’t want to admit that he’d been right in telling them to move the Tesseract.

Every man on that facility had been killed. The Tesseract had been shattered and whatever had powered it had been taken from the inside. Of course, Peg was blaming him. Now that he thought about it, what wasn’t his fault? Oh, yeah! Everything good that happened. That, though, was always to Peg’s credit.

Huh. Why did it take him leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. to notice that every time something bad happened it was down to him and every time something good happened it was down to Peg? It seemed just because he was no longer there, it didn’t mean that they stopped. Looked like he’d become the proverbial frog in boiling water.

But the point was, the Tesseract was gone and the world was on red alert.

Howard had been informed that they were pulling in Barnes for this. He understood why. Barnes was a super soldier. They needed all the help they could get. Howard had been concerned at first, though. Even with the triggers nullified in his brain, he still had PTSD and he could snap at the slightest unpleasant stimuli. Barnes’s doctors, though, had assured him that Barnes was responding well to therapy. The treatment appeared to be working, so they felt that he was safe enough to temporarily discharge.

They were trained in this stuff and Howard wasn’t so he was inclined to trust their judgement.

Just like he’d trusted Tony’s judgement.

_Only question is how the kid knew._

***

Peg glared at the security images. She didn’t blame Fury for not taking Howard’s “hunch” seriously and only sending about ten men – which had saved her from losing too many, especially given how green the men in question were – to the facility. No, Peg blamed Howard for taking the Tesseract out of her protection.

And then the information about Wakanda had been released without her approval.

Howard had refused to answer any of her calls. He’d even gotten up, taken everything in his home, and left for parts unknown. That wasn’t even mentioning the pulling back he’d been doing from S.H.I.E.L.D., suddenly very busy. The world’s governments were evacuating their cities. Peg had been sent an enquiry as to whether S.H.I.E.L.D. was moving as well, or if they intended to fight.

Peg doubted the aliens who’d attacked Wakanda were coming for the rest of the world. Howard was just being the boy that cried wolf. He would be exposed in good time. Then she could get things back to normal. After all, the aliens that Woodrow McCord Jr. dealt with didn’t venture past the Rockies, where they had fought them.

Peg and S.H.I.E.L.D. were not going anywhere.

***

Tony walked out of his room and down the stairs to where his mother was trying to liven the place up. She’d already put down several vases of flowers in various rooms. His mother was currently cooking something in the kitchen. She looked over her shoulder as Tony stuck his head in.

‘You feeling better, honey?’ she asked softly.

‘Hm.’ Tony knew that she missed Jarvis too, but she was more worried about him. This was the first time someone close to him had died. ‘What’s for lunch?’

‘Ravioli,’ Maria said. ‘It’s nearly ready. Will you go and get your father please?’

‘Sure.’ Tony turned and walked through the house. His dad had lost a lot of his irritation and bad temper since he’d stopped answering Peggy Carter’s calls. Tony was surprised they hadn’t tried to force their way into the house. (Maybe they didn’t know where they were.)

Tony trotted down to the workshop and knocked on the door. He pushed it open. His father hadn’t changed the door to lock and isolate him like he had with the other houses. (Then again, he’d built this place when it was just him, Jarvis, and Ana.) ‘Dad, mom wants you to come upstairs.’

‘Why?’ Howard asked.

‘Lunch.’

‘Hm?’ Howard looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Shit. Didn’t realise it was lunchtime.’

‘Time flies when you’re having fun,’ Tony quipped.

To his surprise, Howard laughed.

There was something he didn’t see too often. Tony then picked up his thoughts. _Boy, I needed that. Just what I needed after finding out about that._

‘What happened?’ Tony asked before he could think about it.

‘Hm?’ Howard sobered. _You know what? Screw it! I don’t care if Peg insists he’s a kid. We’re getting invaded and he hasn’t lost his shit. What does she know?_ ‘Oh, the Tesseract was stolen.’ _Shattered and the power source stolen, actually._

Well, shit. Also, nice to know Carter had been constantly insisting he was a kid.

Tony was pretty sure there was a word for that.

***

After lunch, Tony went back upstairs. He stepped into his new room and paused.

There was a folded over slip of paper suddenly on his desk. His name was written on it in an elegant script. It looked like someone or something that had learned to write when English was a new language. He didn’t know why he thought that. Regardless, Tony walked over and picked up the paper. He opened it up.

_Tony,_

_I’ve no doubt you’ve heard. Thanos has the Space Stone. You and your father did save many, many lives by his moving it upon your suggestion. I should also point out that your suggestion alerted your father to the fact that you know a bit more that you’re letting on. So, we have intentions to set his mind at each very soon. We’ll explain when we see you.  
The Time Stone is known to Thanos. That is his next target. Although, I point out that the sorcerers will have the ability to hold his forces off._

_My sister apologises for taking Edwin Jarvis at this time in particular, but the man was in pain. The disease was too advanced and it was eating away at him. Dying was his only release. We thought it better his life ended before the crisis took hold. Take consolation in the fact that he is now back with his wife and, after a quick telling-off (ask your father about Cap’s blood), he has been sent to his final reward._

_Also, I advise you that Peggy Carter is convinced that your father is fear-mongering and the more her theory points to being untrue, the more vindictive she will become. I intend to put her in her place when this is all over. I know precisely how to do it as well. In the meantime, be aware of her movements._

_We’ll be seeing you soon._

_Life._

Tony sighed and set down the letter. He looked at the computer system he’d brought with him and set up.

‘JARVIS?’

‘Yes, sir?’

‘Let’s hack into S.H.I.E.L.D. and keep an eye on Peggy Carter.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howard's introspection in this chapter is actually greatly based on the idea that you only really notice abusive behaviours when you're no longer exposed to them.


	11. The Time Stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos goes after the Time Stone.

**Wakanda (what’s left of it)**  
Thanos smirked in satisfaction as he slid the Space Stone into place on the Infinity Gauntlet.

Four down. Two to go.

Technically one to go. He’d acquire the final stone from the ground soon enough.

Thanos turned. ‘And the other stone?’

‘We have agents making their way to the location as we speak. It will be in your hands shortly, my Lord.’

‘Excellent.’

***

 **The Himalayas**  
The first laser blast hit the force field.

The energy of the laser dispersed over the surface of the barrier. Inside the barrier, the six sorcerers were unharmed. They held their positions, not moving. They sat cross-legged in a circle around the Eye of Agamotto – or the Time Stone depending on who was asked – with their hands pressed flat to the ground. A golden circle underneath them. None of the sorcerers so much as twitched.

Blast after blast after blast was fired at the barrier. It did not give, nor even falter. Weapon after weapon after weapon was exhausted against the force field.

Finally, one of the commanders turned. ‘We must inform our Lord of these defences!’

‘Do _you_ want to tell him?’ another commander demanded.

‘Well, somebody has to! We’ll exhaust _all_ of our weapons at this rate!’

***

 **Wakanda**  
Thanos curled his lip.

The messenger had been immediately destroyed. They apparently couldn’t take down a small group of humans without him coming in to deal with it. Thanos looked back at the digging efforts. He was growing very impatient with his servants. They could not find the Soul Stone in the ground (in fact they insisted their scanners, which were honed to the other Infinity Stones, could find nothing) and now they couldn’t even do so much as claim the Time Stone from a bunch of Terrans. (There was, admittedly, something in there about them having protected the stone for centuries.)

‘Fine.’ Thanos scowled and rose from his throne. ‘I’ll do it myself.’ Perhaps he could work out some of his aggravation.

***

 **The Himalayas**  
Thanos hadn’t thought much of them when he saw them.

Just a bunch of little people sitting in a circle, harnessing energy from somewhere – probably the planet itself – to hold up a force-field. It was amusing to be greatly honest. They were trying their very best to subvert him. But this was Thanos’s property and it would not be withheld from him. It would be best to teach them a lesson.  
Thanos raised the hand which held the Infinity Gauntlet. He aimed and invoked its vast power.

The beam of energy crossed the distance, struck the barrier...and was cancelled out.

The red beam had shot across and hit the barrier, certainly, but the force field had then glowed blue (blue like the Space Stone) at the point of contact. The power of the Infinity Stones had not penetrated the defence. _Impressive,_ Thanos thought in some irritation as his followers murmured behind him in concern.

‘What is this?’ Thanos hissed.

The Terrans didn’t answer. Instead, they seemed to be in a trance.

‘What shall we do, my Lord?’

Thanos curled a lip. ‘Measure the barrier.’

***

 **Higher Planes**  
‘Time to move,’ Life said.

‘I swear I’m going to kill the prick myself!’ Death all but snarled.

‘That would rather ruin the point of the exercise, wouldn’t it?’

‘That’s the only thing really stopping me. What a loser!’

‘Yes, he is.’

The two of them walked out of the office and disappeared from the plane.

***

 **The Himalayas, Earth**  
That was all it was going to take.

Thanos smirked as he had his men line up the cannon.

Somehow, these Terrans had found a way to circumvent the Infinity Stones. He had been informed that they were a rather isolated order though, who did not share their teachings and resources with just anyone. They would be the only people on this planet that had such an object at their fingertips.

‘Fire.’ Thanos gave the order.

The cannon was fired and the ensuring explosion took out a huge chunk of the mountainside.

When the smoke cleared, only the Time Stone remained.

***

 **Stark Bunker Home**  
Tony walked into the garage and stopped.

He was right, and she was right. Death now looked like a walking skeleton. Tony had thought his perception of her would change with Edwin Jarvis’s death. Life leaned back against Tony’s BMW, which is father had bought him a few birthdays ago. It had become his “inconspicuous” car. If they were here, it could only mean one thing.

‘The sorcerers?’

‘They died quickly,’ Death assured him. ‘They didn’t feel a thing.’

‘But Thanos has the Time Stone,’ Tony said.

‘Yes,’ Life said. ‘Which makes the stone within you the only one left.’

Tony jammed his eyes shut. ‘How long until Thanos realises the Soul Stone isn’t in Wakanda?’

‘Not soon enough,’ Life said. ‘I’ll explain when your parents come in.’

‘...My parents?’

‘Yes.’ Death frowned, which was odd when one considered she looked all bone. ‘With the way things are progressing, and given your functional immortality, Thanos will eventually realise you are the bearer of the Soul Stone. There is no way around that. His casual killing throws the balance out and we’d prefer it if that wasn’t damaged any more than it had to be. So we need to act quickly. The fastest way to get results is to have your parents find out about the Soul Stone.’

‘Oh, God!’ Tony groaned and strode over to the workbench. His mom would go nuts when she found out. And his dad...well, he couldn’t even hazard a guess at how his father was going to react. But if they were going to tell them, and they decided to camp in the garage, that mean...‘You picked this moment, didn’t you?’

‘I’m afraid so, yes.’ Life looked at the golden watch that suddenly appeared on her wrist. ‘Right about now, your dad’s getting suspicious about what’s taking you so long in here, seeing as he only sent you to pick up a spare wrench. He’ll be walking through the house. Your mother will see him, see the look on his face and, in concern, follow him. In about five seconds, they’ll walk through the door.’

Death just kept her back to the door as Tony counted down the five seconds in his head.

The door opened.

Tony groaned again and dropped his head into his hand.

‘I’m sorry,’ Life said, sounding far too cheerful. ‘Hello.’

‘No, you’re not,’ Tony grumbled.

‘I’m sorry this is necessary,’ Death stated.

‘That,’ Tony allowed, ‘I believe.’ He lifted his head, folded his arms, and looked at his parents’ startled and alarmed faces. ‘I can explain this.’

_I don’t want to, but I can._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the sorcerers are dead. Don't worry. Life and Death don't like losing good defenders of an Infinity Stone.


	12. The Soul Stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard and Maria find something out - and they're not going to be happy.

‘...I certainly hope so,’ Howard said.

Tony shifted uneasily and glanced between the two people in the garage with him. They seemed non-threatening, and Tony seemed more annoyed with them than anything else. Howard was reasonably sure they were safe. The question remained, however, of how they’d gotten in. Tony didn’t seem overly alarmed by it.

Howard made the decision to trust that. ‘Well?’

Tony cleared his throat. ‘Give me a minute.’

‘We’re the personifications of life and death.’ The blonde knockout, apparently, was not one to beat around the bush.

‘What?’ Howard demanded flatly. What kind of shit was that?

‘Death?’ The blonde looked at the other person.

The other person, the one in the cloak, sighed and turned around. Maria gasped and drew back. There was a sense of alarm and morbid curiosity in Howard as he stared at a person who could only be referred to as a walking skeleton. Suddenly it seemed very plausible that they were the personifications of life and death.

What the hell were they doing here?

Oh well, at least he knew how they got in – kinda. Getting into a millionaire’s bunker home undetected would hardly be the feat of their lives (existences?).

Life grinned at their reactions. ‘You’re probably wondering what we’re doing here. The answer is rather simple. You see, the guy who destroyed Wakanda is on our radar.’

‘Lovely way to put it,’ Death remarked blandly.

‘I beg your pardon?’ Maria asked.

‘He thinks if he kills enough people, it’ll impress Death here,’ Tony said, lips quirking slightly.  
Howard didn’t blame him. The idea that someone would commit genocide to impress...well, he wasn’t sure Death was a _girl_ , per say, but the idea was the same. Howard hadn’t done stupid things to impress girls since he was a kid, just feeling his way through his hormones. And after he made his fortune Maria was the only woman he’d actually had to work to get.

He got some feeling that Death was female anyway.

‘What about the Tesseract?’ Howard asked. ‘Why did he want that?’

Life smiled knowingly. ‘And how do you know it was him?’

‘Same technology was used in both circumstances,’ Howard said. ‘And it was different from the technology I saw last time I saw aliens.’

Life nodded. ‘Yes. We must commend you on that, by the way, most people in the universe consider inverting the power of an Infinity Stone to be an impossible feat.’

Howard would admit, his ego swelled (in a way it hadn’t in years) at the compliment, but he was more curious about what she’d said. ‘Infinity Stone?’

‘The Tesseract,’ Death said, ‘was powered by one of the six Infinity Stones. Specifically by the Space Stone.’

‘ _Space_ Stone?’ Howard’s mind immediately latched onto the possibility.

Life nodded approvingly. ‘Right. Word of advice: when a group of people have seen the same thing, one of them is positive about what he saw, and the rest aren’t dead sure, go with the majority. Besides, what did he know about quantum physics?’

Howard winced. True, Steve had been the one to say with certainty that the Red Skull had disintegrated when he’d touched the Tesseract. The rest of the men, who’d all seen the same thing, had been uncertain as to what had actually happened. Everyone had assumed Steve had a better understanding of what had happened because he was doing the rescue and because of the serum.

From what these guys (who actually knew about the damn thing) were saying, that wasn’t what happened at all. In hindsight, he supposed, it was stupid to trust Steve’s word. Steve had looked lost even when Howard had talked about simple technical things. Instead of trusting Steve’s word that “he disintegrated”, they should have found out what had physically happened. There might have been something in there (something that Steve had overlooked) which would have told them it was actually a teleport.

Tony sighed, and moved the conversation on. ‘The Masters of the Mystic Arts had another Infinity Stone.’

‘Which one?’ Howard asked.

‘The Time Stone,’ Tony said. ‘They’ve been protecting it for centuries.’

‘That’s actually what the order was formed around,’ Life said. ‘Protecting the Time Stone. And now Thanos – that’s this guy’s name – has gotten it as well.’

‘And the order members?’ Maria asked.

‘Dead,’ Death said. Had she had lips, Howard imagined she’d have curled them in that moment. ‘Apparently, that’s his version of giving flowers.’

Despite the fact that this guy was clearly intending to kill them all, Howard was somewhat amused...and curious. She’d said all of this was to impress her, and yet... ‘You don’t seem impressed.’

‘Oh, I’m not,’ Death said. ‘Do you know what happens when you die?’ It was a rhetorical question. ‘You go up to a sort of waiting room, to borrow the mortal concept, in the higher planes. I then have to “process” you then escort you to whatever afterlife has been decided for you based on what kind of person you are and how you lived your life. I have to document who you are, where you’re from, how you died, and when you died. I have to do that for every single person who dies.’

Ah. ‘So he’s basically dumping a mountain of paperwork on your desk and expecting it to make you like him.’

‘Yes,’ Death said, her irritation coming clear in her tone. ‘Not only that. I mentioned the waiting room before. Before Thanos there were always at least a few seats left over. Now, not only is there no breathing room, if you’ll pardon the expression, anywhere in that room, but there’s a queue going out into the hallway.’

‘I share your irritation,’ Life said, ‘but could we perhaps return to the issue at hand?’

‘Right.’ Death clapped her hands, making a sound like skin-on-skin which was weird seeing as she seemed to have none. ‘Before coming to this planet, Thanos acquired the Power Stone, the Mind Stone, and the Reality Stone.’

‘That makes five out of six,’ Maria said. ‘He ought to need only one more. I assume it’s under Wakanda?’

‘Well, he thinks it is,’ Life said. ‘He’s mistaken but he thinks it is.’

‘And you know where it is?’ Howard asked.

‘Of course,’ Life said. ‘The Soul Stone is unique in that it is the only Infinity Stone that actually has consciousness. It, quite literally, has a mind of its own. It also has the unfortunate tendency to absorb souls. And it has decided it is not going to be a tool of that, to coin a phrase, crazy walking grape. So it fled and hid. We spent years looking for it.’

‘We found it two years ago,’ Death told them.

‘Where?’ Howard asked.

Life and Death looked at each other. Tony shifted, almost nervously, shovelling his hands in his pockets and suddenly finding his trainers to be fascinating. Life cleared her throat before speaking. ‘It had concealed itself within the flesh of a 17 year old human being. The host had to be extremely strong-willed so that his soul could resist the pull of the stone, and he had to have a genius-level IQ so that he could handle all of the memories of all of the people whose souls had been absorbed. It’s why Tony knows us, actually.’ She went for a nonchalant shrug. ‘We introduced ourselves when we confirmed the location of the Soul Stone.’

Howard’s brain had just frozen. He knew the answer, but his mind refused to connect A to B. A part of him had realised what they were saying when they said the stone had concealed itself within a 17 year old boy two years ago. Tony had been 17 two years ago. But Howard did not want to acknowledge what his brain was telling him, even as he flashed back to watching Tony _teleport_ out of the Winter Soldier’s grasp.

‘No!’ The word that came out of Maria’s mouth was half demand and half plea.

‘I’m sorry,’ Life said. ‘We have no control over what the Soul Stone does or where it goes. Whatever it was looking for, Tony seems to have fit the mould.’

Howard looked at his son, who was watching his mother with a guilty expression on his face. Tony had, as they’d said, known this beforehand. He had known and he had kept it to himself. But could Howard really blame him for that? Certainly not, especially considering the fact that, had it been Howard, he’d have kept it to himself too.

And that was without knowing about the Raft!

The first thing was that it was just too much effort. Then there was all the drama, and the idea that it was too unbelievable – how could one even begin to explain the Infinity Stones to the human race? And that was not even mentioning not wanting to deal with the various opportunistic assholes.

Yeah, he couldn’t blame Tony for keeping it to himself.

‘That’s why I was in Nepal,’ Tony said, quietly. ‘The Masters of the Mystic Arts were the only people on Earth who understood the Infinity Stones and how to use and control them.’

‘Use them?’ Howard asked.

‘The Soul Stone affords the wielder not only the memories of all those it has absorbed, but also their powers, if any people whose souls became part of it had them.’ Death nodded her head. ‘Yet another reason it chose Tony: he doesn’t want those powers. In fact he kept what he did learn to a bare minimum.’

‘How bare minimum?’ Howard asked, wondering at that. Tony didn’t want powers? Ever? That was weird.

As if reading his mind, Tony huffed and folded his arms. ‘Unlike some people, I don’t care about how great Cap was supposed to be and I don’t want to be like him.’

Howard went to say something, but Life cut him off with a sharp look in his direction.

‘Yes, you’re not a glorified lab rat, Tony, and you never will be.’

Howard winced. Okay, that stung. Maybe all his talking about Steve had gone and done to opposite to Tony’s psyche than what he’d been aiming for.

Tony snorted.

Maria shook her head, bringing them all back to the issue at hand. ‘Tony, he’s gonna kill you if he finds out you have that Stone!’

Tony gave his mother an attempt at a reassuring smile and walked over to hug her. Maria clutched the boy in fear. Tony spoke softly to his mother, but they all heard him. ‘That’s why I focused on telepathy and teleporting, mom. They’ll actually have to get close to me before they can try.’

‘What does that mean?’ Howard asked.

‘It means,’ Death said, ‘that the Souls Stone has given your son functional immortality. Without it, he’d have been killed when the Black Widow attacked him. She shot him – right through the heart. The Soul Stone brought him back quickly enough that it just looked like he stumbled a bit. And it will continue to do so. Why this is, we don’t know. Either the Stone’s taken a liking to him, or it considers it too much trouble to find a new host. Regardless, as long as they do not rip the Stone from your son’s body, he has no chance of ending up in my domain.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howard's not processing this emotionally - yet. He's sort of switched off his emotions and gone into Vulcan-mode (logic only, for the non-Trekkies).
> 
> He'll react emotionally later.
> 
> Thank you to devillygirl or the grape idea. :)


	13. A Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It finally sinks in for Howard. He and Life have a talk.

Life waited in the house after her sister had returned to work.

The sound of crashing downstairs alerted her to the fact that Howard had slowed down enough to register the situation his son was in emotionally. Tony was currently upstairs, trying to placate his mother. This was what Life had been waiting for though. The nice thing about scientists was that they could shut off their emotions in crisis situations and respond entirely logically. But they were still living beings with emotions. They would begin to process the information emotionally sooner or later. Sooner was better. It removed the risk of a breakdown in the middle of the coming battle.

Life materialised down into the workshop.

She observed Howard, shoulders heaving as he looked down at the mangled equipment at his feet, and leaned against his work bench. She was sure the debris at his feet were worth a few thousand dollars at least. But he would hardly care about such a thing in this moment. He turned his head, looking at her with bloodshot eyes.

‘Why him?’ he demanded raspily.

‘I told you,’ Life said. ‘Or are you asking why the Soul Stone chose Tony Stark in particular?’

‘I think you know what I’m asking!’ he snapped.

‘I do,’ Life said. ‘But I will ask you to calm down first, because it is quite a long explanation.

Howard huffed and stormed over to the bar and pulled out a tumbler. He poured himself a drink and took a swig. ‘Fine. Go ahead.’

Life wasn’t sure about the drinking. But it was none of her business. ‘Okay. I see every moment of every life, so I can easily tell you. But first I ask, what was the last “chosen” situation you saw?’ She knew the answer.

Howard nodded. ‘When Erskine chose Steve.’

‘Right. Did Erskine ever tell you what he went through before he came to America?’

Howard shook his head. ‘Not specifically. Why?’

‘His entire family was taken away and murdered in the Holocaust. He was kept only because of the serum, and that was not leverage enough to save any members of his family. In fact, he was practically enslaved and forced to work for the very people who had slaughtered his wife and children, his cousins and brothers and sisters, his nieces and nephews. That was until he managed to escape. Do you really think somebody would come out of that and immediately trust the next government that expressed an interest in his serum? Do you really think he was all right afterwards?’

‘No, but he didn’t seem to hold any animosity towards them,’ Howard pointed out. Life knew, regardless of what he said, he was thinking about how close to the chest Erskine played his cards. ‘He didn’t seem to mind me, at least.’

‘Yes, but he took you for a fellow Jew.’

Howard’s eyebrows lifted. ‘How did he come to that conclusion?’

‘Mostly from your use of Yiddish,’ Life said. ‘In an anti-Semitic era such as the 40s, it wasn’t uncommon for people to shoot off Yiddish words and phrases – but non-Jewish people didn’t know what they meant and used them inaccurately.’

Howard winced. ‘And I did.’

‘I wouldn’t worry. Only Jewish people would notice.’ Life sighed. ‘The point is that Erskine was heavily traumatised. These days they call it Post Traumatic Stress. People in that state should not be making decisions. I understand the feeling of urgency you all had on stopping Hitler, but that man should not have been catered to. He should have been sent on a rest camp and counselled for what he’d seen and lost.’ She shook her head. ‘I understand that your psychology wasn’t advanced enough back then to know that, but it’s what should have happened.’

‘You’re saying he made a mistake in picking Steve?’ Howard asked, with the air of someone who didn’t know quite what to think.

‘As a matter of fact, yes,’ Life said. ‘Erskine said he was looking for “a good man”. In his head he was thinking “a good man”. But if you look at his definition of “a good man”, which I can, you find that he was actually looking for an underdog.’

‘An underdog?’ Howard asked.

‘Someone who was trod on, so to speak, by the system; someone who was as low as you can be in the socio-economic system.’ Life frowned. ‘He saw himself as that kind of person and, at least subconsciously, was looking for a mirror image so it was like he was injecting himself with the serum.’ She folded her hands on top of her head. ‘Now, you know our Mr. Rogers was rejected from military enlistment five times. Do you know why that was?’

‘I remember they said he has asthma and heart difficulties,’ Howard said.

‘So you never saw his medical file?’

‘No. Erskine was the geneticist. I was just the engineer. He looked at that stuff.’

‘Erskine _glanced_ at that stuff.’ Life clicked and a file was teleported onto the bench next to Howard. ‘Go on. Look for yourself.’

Howard sighed and picked up a pair of reading glasses. He slid them on and opened the file. His brow furrowed at first – then he got to the second-to-last ailment listed in the file. ‘What...?’

‘Yup,’ Life said. ‘And his mother was a nurse. While she was dying of that, she told him again and again that if he didn’t contract it he certainly would be carrying it. But Steve Rogers was a man of three things: considering himself the “little guy from Brooklyn” no matter how big he got, being very good at talking about righteousness and good morality, and selective hearing.’

‘What?’

‘Okay, you never had any disagreements with Rogers. Had you done that, you’d have developed a much different opinion on the man than you have now. You can ask Barnes for confirmation later but Rogers couldn’t stand being disagreed with. Those bullies he mentioned – 9 times out of 10, they were just people who had different opinions from him.

From the look on his face, Howard was definitely going to be checking that with Barnes.

‘As for the “selective hearing”, Rogers had a tendency to only hear what he wanted to hear and nothing else.’ Life shook her head. ‘He didn’t hear his mother tell him with her dying breath that he was now a walking contamination field because he didn’t want to hear that he was a walking contamination field. He didn’t hear five times in a row, by five different doctors, that he was unfit to serve because he didn’t want to hear that he was unfit to serve. So on, and so forth. He’s basically, in your own words, one of those dickheads who thinks he’s always right and can’t be convinced otherwise until he’s eating dirt.’

Howard went to say something, and then froze. ‘Present tense?’

‘He’s still alive,’ Life said. ‘That serum has kept him alive under the ice, in a form of natural cryonic suspension.’

‘So why can’t we just dig him up and send him after Thanos?’ Howard demanded.

‘Send Rogers in as a sacrificial lamb to keep your son safe?’ Life chuckled. ‘I like it. Unfortunately, it just wouldn’t work. Rogers only knows how to hit. Everyone who has ever tried to stand against Thanos has tried to use physical force to stop him. It has always had the same mass extinction result. At best, it’d buy Tony a couple of extra minutes.’

‘A couple of minutes?’

‘If that.’

‘GODDAMNIT!’ Life watched Howard punch a cabinet.

She then sat down again. ‘Which brings me to the answer to your question. Rogers was far from the only person ever given powers. There was also a...sub-class of humans, so to speak, who could have hosted the Soul Stone with no trouble. They’re called Transcendent Souls, and there are 12 of them on Earth at present.’

‘Transcendent Souls?’

‘Souls that literally transcend death. When they die, they’re just reincarnated into a new body. Some say they are the original enhanced. They have access both to the powers and the memories of all of their previous lives. And as their souls are transcendent, the Soul Stone cannot absorb them.’

‘Tony’s not one of them, is he?’

‘No.’

‘Then why was he picked above any of them?’ Howard demanded.

‘The Soul Stone wanted someone who was in close proximity to the other two Stones on the planet. Or one of them, at least. That way, it could know when to flee or start fighting back. The only Transcendent Soul who had ever had any contact was, until eight years ago, in stasis. We can only assume that this time period was when the Soul Stone came to Earth, looking for a host.’

‘Stasis?’

‘The period between the lifetimes of each Transcendent Soul.’

‘...And...eight years ago?’

‘She was reborn. Yes, she is currently eight years old, so that’s not an option.’ Life paused and inclined her head. ‘Interestingly, Carter encountered a Transcendent Soul. If she hadn’t made that ridiculous power play, he probably would have ended up being the host of the Soul Stone instead.’

‘What?’ Howard demanded. ‘Oh, God! What’d she do this time?’

‘About twenty years ago, she met him on a mission. As she does when she meets enhanced, she tried to get him into her ranks and under her power – something about enhanced being better in her hands than anyone else’s.’ As if they couldn’t make complex decisions on their own! ‘The thing is that Transcendent Souls are old enough not to give a crap about hurting your feelings so they have a tendency to...what’s that expression? Shoot you straight from the hip? Yeah, that’s it. He essentially told Peg that she was a self-righteous megalomaniac who’d fallen from grace so long ago, she wouldn’t know evil if, and I quote, “it came and bit you in the ass”. She responded by throwing him in the Raft...the early version.’

‘There was an early version?’

Life grinned. ‘Well, the funny thing is that with Transcendent Souls, they have a different power for every seventh lifetime, so you never know what you’re gonna get. Sometimes it’s going to be very subtle like weather perception – which just makes the person like a living barometer – or it could be something very...in-your-face like, in this case, pyrokinesis.’

‘He blew himself up?’

‘Once he discovered the Raft was inescapable any other way, yes.’ Life shrugged. ‘While that’s suicide to anybody else, the Transcendent Soul regards it as no more than terminating the current body and moving onto the next.’

‘Because Peg wanted his powers, Tony’s in this mess?’ Howard demanded.

‘Yes.’ Well, fair was fair. Carter had spent years and years blaming Howard for things, some with less than solid justification. It was his turn to do some blaming.  
Howard was thoughtful for a moment. When Life caught the direction of his thoughts, she had no idea why she didn’t think of that. Howard spoke. ‘How many of these people are fit to participate?’

‘Seven,’ Life said. ‘You suggest calling for their help?’

‘And I need someone to break into the Raft too.’ Howard grinned. ‘Peg won’t open it willingly. But if each has a goody bag of powers tucked away, I doubt the S.H.I.E.L.D. boys can stop all of them.’

‘Certainly not.’ Life smirked. ‘But you will need to prevent back-up from rushing to their aid. I have something for you that will shut Carter and her self-righteous bullshit right up.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if Erskine is _actually_ stated as a Jew but I was thinking. He seemed to have left Germany alone. How could he have done that - left any family he had behind when he was on a Nazi Wanted/Hit List? So I figure either he abandoned them or, far more likely, they were already killed in the Holocaust when he left.
> 
> Howard has an understated reaction to Life saying Steve was a bad choice because he doesn't understand exactly what she means (was it bad for Erskine to make any choice in that moment? Was there a better candidate? Was Steve extracted from boot camp too quickly?)
> 
> The Transcendent Souls are an idea I'm developing and sounding out (Sharee from my story, _Midnight_ was one).


	14. Open the Raft

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to confront Peg.
> 
> The 7 Transcendent Souls head out on a rescue mission.

**Atlantic Ocean**  
A helicopter flew over the Atlantic Ocean. A blonde woman sat at the controls while a second woman read the map. She looked up. ‘It’s right below us. Are we on their radar?’  
A dark-skinned man answered. ‘Nope. This kid really knows what he’s doing.’ He smirked. ‘With him around, I somehow doubt Wakanda would have remained the most technologically advanced nation within the next hundred years.’

‘And you’d know.’ The Asian man pushed the door open and the wind rushed in. He dropped into the ocean below. His body transmuted into water before he hit the surface.

The Middle-Eastern woman waved a hand and pushed it closed behind him.

***

 **New York Airspace**  
The pilot chuckled.

Honestly, Bucky didn’t blame him. The fact that Peggy Carter had been so arrogant over the years – Bucky knew all about the extreme hubris of the S.H.I.E.L.D. director and it had not been nice finding out who she was (even if he’d barely had one or two conversations with her) – had been what had allowed HYDRA in to begin with.

Now it was biting her in the butt.

And she didn’t even know it yet.

***

 **The Triskelion**  
Howard nearly burst out laughing at the look on Peg’s face when she stepped into the office.

Fury was a little better, but he was quite likely either a psychopath or a sociopath. Either way, he was a manipulative bastard who Howard was quite sure didn’t feel guilt. So it was no surprise that he could keep his expression neutral – except for a bit of irritation – when Peg looked like she’d stepped into the Twilight Zone.

In the past, Howard had often thought that Peg forgot who had designed the security system. It had been a thought, and sometimes a remark to Maria, made in frustration or irritation – or both. But it looked like he hadn’t been too far off the mark. She seemed surprised that Howard had bypassed _his own security system_ and all three Starks now sat in the office. Maria sat close to Tony, who was busy at work on a laptop computer that Howard had procured for him.

‘Howard!’ she snapped.

Howard smirked and inclined his head. ‘Does the name Reuben Magnussen ring a bell, Peg?’

Peg drew back. Obviously it did. Well, he was the one who blew up her first Raft, so his name probably would have stuck in her head. ‘Where’d you hear that name?’ she demanded.

‘His family’s been looking for him for the past 20 years,’ Howard said. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but that wasn’t where he’d heard the name. ‘Apparently, the last thing he did of note was have an argument with you.’ And that was an educated guess.

Peg’s expression tightened. ‘I had nothing to do with Mr. Magnussen’s death—’

‘Yeah,’ Tony said flippantly, clearly goading her for a reaction (or maybe it was just clear to his parents). ‘You just unlawfully imprisoned him in a facility he couldn’t escape from any other way.’

Peg took the bait like a fish. ‘That is none of your business, young man!’

‘Oh!’ Howard smirked. ‘So you did.’

‘There are people who can’t be controlled, Howard,’ Peg just about hissed.

‘And _you_ should be the one to control them?’ Howard demanded, eyes narrowing. ‘They’re not tools or weapons, Peg. They’re human beings. They’re entitled to their humans rights. Locking them away because they tell you to piss off or they question you is not an acceptable way to deal with that.’

Not that she had much say in the matter. Tony and his AI, which he’d named after Edwin Jarvis, were already deep in the Raft’s systems. The guards would never see the seven Transcendent Souls coming. Already, Peg would be losing those people that she thought she had a firm hold on, and they’d get a deal. It seemed kind of exploitative to let them out and then go “oh, by the way, we’re on the brink of an extinction-level event we need you to help us fight”, but they didn’t have much choice.

‘Howard, you can’t just come in here!’ Peg barked. ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’

‘I put that question,’ Howard said, feeling calm in the face of Peg’s anger for the first time since the war, ‘to you.’ This time, he didn’t turn away or find something else to look at. ‘You stand here, completely ignoring everything that doesn’t fit into your little world view, making decisions for everyone else like they’re children and overall acting like you have the moral high ground.’ He inclined his head. ‘You know, it was always curious. You were on loan to the SSR from SOE. Most of the other women went to MI5 or MI6 or returned to their civilian lives after the war. But you? You stayed in America. Why?’

Carter’s eyes narrowed. ‘I made my choice.’ It was generally a look that signified the person she was facing should back off but this? This was _gold_!

What she had done was far worse than anything he, as supposedly morally bankrupt as he was, had ever done.

‘Yeah,’ Howard drawled. ‘In 1939. So what did you end up telling Fred Wells?’

Shock went over Peg’s face. Then her expression hardened. ‘Where did you hear that name?’ Yup, that was definitely a tremor in her voice.

‘Not important,’ Howard said.

‘Who’s Fred Wells?’ Tony asked.

‘None of your—’

Howard cut her off. She’d stuck her nose in plenty of places that weren’t her business. It was payback time. ‘In 1939, Peg was engaged to Fred Wells and she was going to marry him. He met her brother prior to Captain Carter heading back into active duty, where he told her to stop doing what society told her to.’ He smirked at Peg. ‘Seems there was a time when Peg, here, was being a good little girl and getting married like she was told. On the wedding day, however, Peg got news that her brother had been killed in action. She got changed and left to become the Margaret Elizabeth Carter you see now – without telling anyone.’

‘Peg!’ Maria snapped in reproach.

Tony smirked. ‘So you staying here was really you chickening out from having to go back and explain yourself to _everybody_.’

Peg’s spine stiffened. ‘That is none of your business. I made the right decision.’

‘No,’ Maria said. ‘You didn’t. You had just found out that your brother had died – as was believed at the time. If you had sent a message explaining such to Mr. Wells, I’m sure he would have done the proper thing and called the wedding off, at least for the time being. Everyone would have understood. Instead, you ran like a thief in the night. And then, instead of going back to answer for it, you stayed here – where no one knew what you had done.’

‘Until now,’ Howard said. ‘I never claimed to be a saint, but that is worse than anything I have ever done. You never had the right to claim a moral high ground in the first place. Now that I know this, be aware that I’m not going to let you do it again. Which brings us back to the Raft.’

‘They are dangerous people,’ Peg said through gritted teeth.

‘So is anybody.’ Howard shrugged. ‘Does the American government chuck every person who disagrees with them in prison? Of course not. So what the hell gives you the right to do it? You’re not an American citizen. You never applied to be one. You live here on a work visa. These people are either American citizens or they were kidnapped – yes, I said _kidnapped_ – by American citizens under your...authority. Some of your agents, as I recall, are even former enemies of the state that you decided to...enlist. You allow them to live and operate in the name of the American government.’ He cocked an eyebrow. ‘Do you have any idea how quickly you’d be deported if your actions became known?’

Peg’s eyes narrowed. ‘The WSC...’

Like that would keep anyone from knowing who she was talking about!

‘Has no actual power.’ Tony was the one who interrupted her this time. ‘There is no contract, no sanctions, and no laws giving this World Security Council any powers. On top of that, S.H.I.E.L.D. are the only ones who answer to them. They have no more authority in the government than the Tooth Fairy.’

‘You told him about the World Security Council too?’ Peg demanded.

Howard lifted his shoulders, unrepentant. The kid was right. The WSC had no power, contrary to what they seemed to think. Hell! Howard wasn’t even sure where in the name of God they’d come from. He’d never gotten a straight answer on that front. That really should have been a clue that there was something fishy about them.

Tony frowned. ‘Carter, you could do me the courtesy of speaking to me rather than yelling at my father like I’m not even here.’

Peg’s face tightened. ‘You’re too young to understand, Tony.’

‘Too young to understand?’

Peg and Fury spun around, both reaching for their guns. A particular man stood in the doorway, backed by several _legitimate_ intelligence agents.

He ignored the guns and stepped forward. ‘Are you seriously infantilising the guy who was attacked by both a Black Widow and the Winter Soldier and came out on top?’

Peg’s jaw worked.

‘The Winter Soldier doesn’t exist,’ Fury stated.

‘Not anymore, no.’ The man shook his head. ‘He was taken down by Tony there.’ He nodded his head to Howard’s son. ‘And I should know. He was me.’

‘What?’ Peg demanded. ‘Bucky...you were...but... _what_?’

‘Bucky?’ Fury asked.

‘Hiya, Sarge,’ Howard said.

Peg turned on him. ‘You knew about this?!’

‘Oh, my God! She sounds like Steve when he got offended.’ Bucky brushed past Fury and yanked the gun out of his hand before the one-eyed spy knew what’d happened. ‘By the way, Howard, Pierce just tried to trigger me.’

Howard smirked in amusement. ‘I take it he’s counting stars now.’

‘At the very least.’

***

 **The Raft**  
Tyler Harrison had been trapped in the Raft for fourteen years when the guards suddenly slumped and seemed to fall into a lethargic daze. The door of the cell block opened and a woman in her 30s stepped in. She spoke in a clear voice with a thick Irish accent. ‘All personnel report to the rec room.’

To his surprise, they all went.

‘What did you do?’ Chris Jacobson asked as soon as they were gone.

‘Simple enough,’ she said, clearly taking care to make herself understood despite her accent. ‘I put them into a state of lethargic complacency so they wouldn’t question the order I gave them and just did it. Once they’re in there, they’ll be locked in.’

‘What about back-up?’ Caroline Harper asked.

‘We’ve handled that.’ She turned. ‘Leyla!’

A woman of Middle Eastern origin stepped through and, with a wave of her hand, opened the cells.

‘Why did you risk yourselves to let us out?’ Tyler asked.

‘We shall explain later,’ Leyla said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fred Wells thing was an impression I got from AC. We saw Peg preparing to get married, get the news of her brother's death and react. Then the next thing she was out of the wedding dress and leaving. I was left with the impression that she just went straight to sign up for the SOE, without telling anyone where she was going.
> 
> Howard is casual about someone trying to trigger Bucky because he was expecting it (they all were) - and he knew it wouldn't work. He views it as something that narrows down who is HYDRA.
> 
> So...yeah. Pierce is busted and currently in federal custody.


	15. Impending Geological Disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So what would happen if Thanos kept digging? Peg's gotta stop ignoring the facts sometime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm not dead sure what would actually happen if someone dug far enough down into the Earth's crust but I'm betting it would do Thanos's job for him.
> 
> I'm picturing suffocation, starvation, and dehydration.
> 
> I tried looking it up, but I couldn't find anything. There's probably a specific set of papers that would tell me. Anyone who knows can feel free to fill me in.

Peg watched as Bucky walked in. He was backed by about four agents (that were not hers). He looked at Carson and nodded his head. Two of the men at his back were over to them and forced them to their knees. Fury reached for his gun but Bucky brushed past and yanked it out of his hand.

Only the Starks seemed unconcerned. Howard raised an eyebrow. ‘HYDRA?’

‘Pretty high-up, actually,’ Bucky said, plopping down at the table.

‘That’s ridiculous!’ Peg insisted. ‘HYDRA hasn’t existed for over fifty years.’

‘That’s just what they want you to think,’ Bucky said, glancing at what Tony was doing on his laptop before looking at her. ‘I should know.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Peg demanded.

‘It means I’ve been a HYDRA POW since I fell from that train,’ Bucky said. ‘Until this... _kid_ , as you call him, stopped me and got me the help I needed.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Peg demanded.

‘Okay, you want plain English?’ Howard asked. ‘Bucky was captured, brainwashed, and made into the Winter Soldier. He was sent to kill us, but Tony stopped him and got him de-brainwashed. He’s spent the last handful of months in a psychiatric facility. He’s only been let out because of what’s going on in Wakanda.’

‘Wakanda has nothing to do with the rest of the world!’ Peg insisted.

‘And who do you think stole the Tesseract? A separate group?’ Howard took one look at her face. ‘Oh, God! You did!’

‘Two sets of aliens on Earth at once?’ Tony snorted. ‘What gave her a stupid idea like that?’

Instead of ignoring the boy like he usually did, Howard answered him. ‘Because her only experience with aliens came from Woody.’

‘Woody?’ Tony asked.

‘Woodrow McCord Jr.,’ Howard said. ‘Died in the forties. His family were abducted and enslaved by an alien species when he was a kid. He escaped and spent the rest of his life fighting them from the Rockies. But like he told me, they were slavers. That’s a very specific example of aliens. I don’t know what these guys are, exactly, but they’re clearly aiming to kill.’ Peg found his glare focused entirely on her. ‘What? Did you think they’d just leave when they finished with Wakanda?’

Well, said like that it sounded unbearably naive.

‘Even so,’ Tony said. ‘They’ve already destroyed Wakanda and now they’re digging into the Earth. We don’t know what they’re looking for and we certainly don’t know if it’s there. Do you really want to risk them not giving up and keeping on digging?’ 

‘So they’ll dig themselves into a hole?’ Peg asked. She didn’t see anything wrong with that.

Howard sighed. ‘Do you understand anything about geology?’ he asked with an angry tone. ‘Do you know what would happen if you were to dig far enough down?’

***

 **CIA HQ, Conference Room 4**  
‘Correct,’ Ethne said in response to the answer she’d received. She stood before a select group of former prisoners of the Raft. They’d gone for people who had seemed to have been thrown in the Raft simply because they had powers and wouldn’t work for S.H.I.E.L.D. – no other reason. It was over half of the inmates. ‘Which is why we need to stop them from digging.’

‘What are they looking for?’ one man asked.

‘The Soul Stone,’ Ethne said. ‘The Soul Stone is one of six Infinity Stones which, when pulled together, can alter the fabric of the universe. You have all six of these and you can do whatever you want with the universe.’ It would be a temptation for many, she knew, but they had contingency plans for that. ‘It is how we as the Transcendent Souls exist.’

‘Then it can’t possibly be under Wakanda,’ one woman said. ‘You would have to come into contact with it then, and you couldn’t if it was under that country.’

‘It isn’t,’ Ethne said. ‘For now, its location is anonymous. The important thing is that these people believe that it is under Wakanda and they will keep digging no matter how deep they go. Thanks to Satellite images we know their leader has, in his possession all of the other Infinity Stones.’ She stopped and stood in front of them. ‘We are asking for volunteers to fight. If you aren’t inclined to fight for a planet that locked you up, we won’t make you. If you choose not to volunteer, you may step outside the room where you will be escorted to a lawyer who will begin working on your cases and your defence. If you do choose to fight, though, the assumption is that this will occur after the fight.’

‘Assumption?’

Ethne had been expecting someone to ask. If they hadn’t, she’d have said it next. ‘You could very well die in the battle. In which case, your trials will be held posthumorously.’ She looked them over. ‘The decision is yours.’

Several people immediately stood and walked out of the room.

***

 **The Triskelion**  
‘You can’t do that!’ Peg insisted.

‘It’s already been done,’ the CIA agent said. ‘The enhanced have been removed from your floating prison, the Raft has been seized, and in a few weeks you’re going to have a mountain of lawsuits sitting on your desk.’

‘Howard!’ Peg snapped.

‘What are you yelling at me for?’ Howard asked as he waited for his son to pack up the laptop. ‘I’m not the one who unlawfully imprisoned people because they told me to get bent.’

Peg glared at him.

‘Oh, back off, Peg!’ Bucky snapped. ‘No one else but you is responsible for your dumb decisions.’ He rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘Geez, it’s like dealing with Steve all over again.’

‘Oh, come on, he was your friend!’ Peg insisted. ‘He was a model of morality, and you know it!’

‘I was his only friend,’ Bucky said. ‘Don’t you think it’s the slightest bit strange that a “model of morality” only had one friend?’

Howard inclined his head as if curious.

‘So people didn’t like being called out,’ Peg said. ‘That’s normal. It just makes Steve—’

Bucky interrupted her. ‘No, people didn’t like Steve’s insistence that his opinion was the right one.’ He scoffed. ‘Don’t tell me you believed that “bully” line he used to feed about why those fights happened?’

‘Oh,’ Howard said. ‘So he did pick the fights just because people disagreed with him?’

‘Heard that, did you?’ Bucky chuckled. ‘Yeah, that was all it was. He was hyper-defensive and sensitive as a rotten tooth, especially when it came to his perceived failings – like his lack of size and strength. And he always responded with violence. I stepped in most of the time so his mom wouldn’t end up with a hospital bill she couldn’t afford.’

Peg was glowering at them now.

‘Hold on,’ Tony said. ‘This guy went around picking fights with people bigger and stronger than himself when his mom was raising him alone and had practically no money?’

‘Yes,’ Bucky said. He then grinned at Howard. ‘Not many born-into-money 19-year-olds would get the significance of that. You must’ve done something right.’

Tony chuckled and shook his head. ‘Hell, I worked out that punching problems doesn’t make them go away when I was in elementary school.’

‘At the end of elementary school, actually,’ Maria said. ‘I think you were about six or seven the last time I got a phone call about you fighting.’

Bucky nodded his head. ‘Well, you have critical thinking skills. Steve may have had them but he didn’t like using them. I’d almost say “ask any one of our old teachers” but that’s not really going to be possible.’

Howard chuckled and shook his head. ‘Well, we better get going. There’s a battle to organise.’

Bucky nodded and followed the Starks out.

‘See you, Peg,’ Howard called over his shoulder. ‘I’d start contacting lawyers if I were you. You know, seeing as I’m lending mine to the enhanced.’

***

‘The Stone is _where_?’

‘You heard me.’

‘In a 19-year-old rich boy?’

‘I wouldn’t categorise him solely as a “rich boy”. The Soul Stone has existed almost as long as the universe itself and it is the only Infinity Stone with a consciousness. It chose Tony Stark for a reason. And, trust me, his wealth had _nothing_ to do with it.’

There was a pause. ‘God, you sound like a schoolteacher.’

Ethne chuckled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ethne didn't tell them that the Soul Stone's location would be revealed to the volunteers for...obvious reasons.


	16. The School Teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the rendezvous, a discovery is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea with Russia is based on the fact that HYDRA seems to be using Russia, and the Russian territories, as their home base. I have the idea that Russia knows this (after all, the Black Widow candidates are taken from Russian civilians). So they are more...vigilant, I suppose you could say, about enhanced in their country.
> 
> Kolya's relevance in this will be explained later.

**Nairobi, Kenya**  
Tony followed his father into the UN Embassy building. His mother walked alongside him, still not wanting him far from her. Bucky followed along behind. They walked into the building and some official showed them through the place to a room. Tony had only seen one of the Transcendent Souls, a man who worked as a specialised agent for the Russian government – Kolya Zima. Howard hadn’t been too impressed with the Russian thing, nor had the CIA, but as Kolya had said when it came to the end of the world national borders ceased to matter.

Of course, then Tony had found out that there were already laws in place in Russia that covered the enhanced. One of which was that they had to register. Those that did were often drafted into the service of the nation in some way, depending upon their powers. And, Kolya, it turned out was not someone the Russian government wanted to upset.

Why...was all very hush-hush.

Tony wondered if Kolya would tell him.

The middle-eastern woman in the room looked up as they came in. ‘We have an army of about 50-strong.’

‘54,’ the Irishwoman said.

Kolya gave a wry smile. ‘Well, I suppose I’d better introduce the others. He gestured to the middle-eastern woman and then the Irish one. ‘Leyla Qadir for Iraq and Ethne Mac Giolla Bhighde, obviously from Ireland.’ He then gestured to the Asian man, ‘Zhen Tan from China,’ and then to the Asian woman, ‘Mai Thi Phan from Vietnam.’ He gestured to the last two people – a man and a woman. ‘Jamil Otieno from Tanzania and Graciana Ibarra from Brazil.’

‘Grace,’ the Brazilian woman told them.

Tony noticed Ethne look at Bucky in something like bemusement.

‘You’re all Transcendent Souls?’ Howard asked.

‘Yes,’ Zhen said. ‘Our volunteers have been informed of the location of the Soul Stone.’

Tony suddenly became aware of an odd sensation in his mind. His eyes were drawn to Mai. She cracked a grin.

_Sorry. I was curious._

Oh, so she was telepathic too. _Just make sure you ask next time._

_Sure._

‘Is that wise?’ Maria asked.

‘We did study the situation before we made the decision,’ Ethne said, moving from her chair and beginning to pace through the room, like a teacher. ‘Mai has the ability of mental synchronisation. It’s very similar to telepathy but not quite the same.’

‘What does that mean?’ Howard asked.

‘Telepathy is going into someone else’s mind and reading their thoughts,’ Mai said. ‘What I do is synchronise to other peoples’ thoughts, practically bringing them into my mind instead. Thanos can actually detect the Infinity Stones. Your son’s proximity to the country of Wakanda has registered to him as getting closer to the Soul Stone. His digging will be slowing down and becoming more careful.’ She nodded to Tony. ‘We just had a short telepathic conversation.’ She looked Tony right in the eye. ‘Throughout that, your eyes were glowing orange.’

Tony lifted a hand to his face, self-consciously.

‘Like you, we were picked by the Soul Stone,’ Ethne said, continuing. ‘We didn’t have the option of saying “no”, but we did learn an awful lot about the Infinity Stones. One fact is that when a person uses an Infinity Stone, their eyes glow the colour of the stone. As Mai has told us all of Thanos’s cronies know this. One look at you using your powers and the game’s up.’

‘Can’t he just...sit out of the fight?’ Maria asked.

Grace gave her a sympathetic look. ‘I’m afraid not. We don’t know your son at all, but we can take an educated guess at what he is like. The Soul Stone has a clear preference when it comes to the personalities in the humans it picks out. It tends to go for people who have three key attributes. First, they don’t like to have power and responsibility, but they do know how to handle it and they handle it well.’

‘We weren’t the only ones considered for the transcendent state,’ Jamil said. ‘But we were the only ones who passed the trials. The others failed, for the most part, because they abused the powers they were given. They grew drunk or arrogant on the power they were temporarily given. In some cases, they took a few years to do so but they still did it.’

If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

‘Well, be fair,’ Zhen said with a hint of amusement in his voice. ‘They didn’t know it was temporary.’

‘I take it you guys got to keep your powers because you passed the trials?’ Tony asked.

‘Yes,’ Leyla said. ‘The second thing the Soul Stone looks for in a human is, for lack of a better term and using the word rather loosely, a reluctant hero. Someone who doesn’t want the power, who wants nothing to do with the situation, but their conscience will not let them walk away or make excuses not to concern themselves with the issue. Like, we didn’t want to fly out to the Raft and stage a prison break, we don’t want to be here, and Reuben most assuredly did not want to turn himself into a human bomb, but at the end of the day that’s what had to be done.’

‘Which brings us to the third point,’ Ethne said. ‘There is a particular mentality the Soul Stone likes people to have. The Star Trek series put it best: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. To take an example – hypothetical. Let’s say there’s a train coming. The track forks though. As it stands, the train is going to veer to the left and plummet over the edge of a cliff with its hundred or so passengers. But you are standing next to lever. By pulling that lever, the train will go to the right. The problem is that to pull the lever, you must stand on the track that veers to the right. The kind of person the Soul Stone chooses would pull the lever.’

Tony didn’t know that he was the kind of person that would sacrifice his own life for the lives of many people. He liked to think he’d be brave enough to do it but, realistically, he wasn’t sure he’d have the guts to do it.

‘Hold on,’ Bucky said. ‘I’ve heard that scenario before.’

‘I should say so,’ Ethne said. ‘I used that scenario with my students frequently in my previous lifetime. For the most part, it was a very good way to make them consider their own characters – especially the older ones.’

‘Huh?’ Bucky asked.

‘Transcendent Souls get repetitively reincarnated,’ Howard said.

‘So where did you live before?’ Bucky asked.

‘Brooklyn,’ she said.

Bucky’s eyes widened. Tony heard him immediately latch onto the particular school teacher who said that scenario. ‘Are you telling me that you were Mrs. Cassidy, the geography teacher, from the old days?’

Ethne cracked a grin. ‘As I recall, little Stevie missed the point of the exercise and kept insisting there had to be a way to pull the lever without going onto the tracks. Then again, he missed the point of a lot of things.’

Bucky barked out a laugh. ‘Tell me about it.’

‘Never stopped getting into fistfights, huh?’

‘Did you ever expect him to?’ Bucky asked. Something clicked. ‘Hold on! That’s why you were the only teacher who could handle him, wasn’t it?’

‘I...may have altered the chemicals in his brain to make him lethargic, yes,’ Ethne said. ‘I tried everything else and that was the only thing that worked. He was so defensive that I’d have to focus on him all the time to keep him from getting angry. Lethargy was the only thing that kept it down. It made him harder to teach him, but it’s not like he wanted to learn anyway.’

‘What do you mean?’ Howard asked curiously.

‘Steve was hardly ever in class because of how often he was sick,’ Ethne said. ‘So when he did make it, he was often lost. Rather than taking private tuition to try and understand – and we did offer – he was often disruptive because he didn’t understand what was going on.’ She shrugged. ‘The way he saw it, we were using words and phrases he didn’t understand to intentionally make him look stupid.’

‘Yeah,’ Bucky said. ‘I tried to tell him that the rest of us knew what they were talking about, but it went in one ear and out the other.’ He nodded to Ethne. ‘He didn’t even read the material you and the other teachers sent him to help him keep up.’

‘I thought as much,’ she said. ‘Didn’t like looking stupid, but wasn’t willing to put the effort in to not look stupid.’

‘Now,’ Kolya said, ‘I like walking down memory lane as much as the next guy, but we do have a battle plan to draw up.’

‘Right,’ Ethne said. ‘So, digging’s taking place mainly in the capitol. A few scavengers have tried to sneak in but they’ve been shot dead instantly.’

‘Scavengers?’ Maria asked.

Howard nodded as if he expected as much. ‘They’re tossing the vibranium aside as if it was trash and people are trying to get their hands on it.’

‘Yes,’ Grace said. ‘So, we know what kind of weapons they have.’

Ethne walked over to the rotating blackboard and flipped it over, revealing the list of weapons observed. ‘They’re digging in the capitol, so Jamil is going to lead us in. He knows the basic layout of the place.’

‘Don’t tell me,’ Howard said, looking at Jamil. ‘You were Wakandan in a previous life?’

‘I was curious,’ Jamil said. ‘And because of my powers I got a place in the Royal Court. I’m actually not surprised they were wiped out so quickly. They may have been technologically advanced, but they were also rabid traditionalists.’

‘What do you mean?’ Bucky asked.

‘They had guns,’ Jamil said. ‘But they preferred hand-to-hand combat and manual weapons, like spears and swords. When I was there, I saw the Dora Milaje training but I never saw them pick up a gun. Firearms were considered a last resort and something they’d never have a need for. So, yeah, I’m not surprised they got their butts kicked.’

‘We do have one defence though, if it comes to fighting this guy,’ Zhen said.

‘What’s that?’ Howard asked.

‘The Arc Reactor.’ Tony opened his backpack and pulled out a miniature one. A blue glow was cast over the room. ‘I had the idea about a year ago. You made it from the Tesseract, and that had Infinity Stone inside of it.’

‘Which should have been impossible,’ Ethne put in.

‘Right,’ Tony said. ‘So I was thinking how would it react to energy from the Infinity Stones? I gave one of these to the Masters of the Mystic Arts.’

‘And?’ Howard asked.

‘It completely cancelled out the energy from the Infinity Stones this guy has.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't seen BP or IW but I doubt the Dora would have used guns when getting attacked, because we never see any Wakandans handling anything _like_ guns. And Jamil certainly doesn't think so.


	17. Destination: Wakanda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard and Maria are left to worry as their son heads into battle.

Howard was impressed, to say the least.

It had taken him 20 years and one treacherous partner to build the big Arc Reactor. The miniturised one had always been just an idea. Tony had the idea scratched out and constructed within just a few weeks of coming him from the Kamar-Taj. Howard had been right. The kid was going to go on to do great things someday. He only hoped Life’s big plan would end with all three Starks going home.

Tony had explained to everyone that Life and Death had a plan – and it depended on them killing as many of Thanos’s people as they could.

Howard would have liked to strap one of these portable force-fields to Tony, but that would block Tony from using the two offensive powers he’d need. Howard didn’t know he’d been capable of putting all of his hopes on a single thing before, but right now he was depending on Tony’s teleportation to keep him safe.

‘He’s going without us, isn’t he?’

Howard turned and looked back at his wife, sitting on the sofa at the edge of his work space and nervously twisting her ring around her finger. He jammed his eyes shut and pushed his reading glasses up to rub his nose. Tony was their only child – the only one that’d survived to full-term – and now it was a very real possibility that they were going to lose him.

‘We’d only get in the way,’ Howard said, tightly.

Ethne had told Howard what the correct answer to her favoured scenario was. There were three main answers she got. What answer she got, and how the answer was delivered would tell her exactly what kind of person the student she was talking to was. The first was “no, I wouldn’t”. This either meant the person was a sadist or that they knew for a fact they wouldn’t have the nerve to pull the lever.

The second answer was “yes, of course”. Ethne dismissed that as a flat-out lie. They were telling her what they thought she wanted to hear. They were people-pleasers if they gave her that answer. Alternatively, that answer should potentially serve as an alarm. If someone said that, and meant it, they could easily be suicidal.

The third answer, which was the one Tony had evidently given her, even if only internally as stated by Mai, (as had Bucky, back in the day) and the thought, Howard was pleased to note, that went through his head when he heard the scenario: “I’d like to think I would, but I can’t be certain”. This was the answer Ethne was looking for.

It was the most honest answer that could be given. Humans, as a body, liked to think of themselves as good and compassionate people who would help those in need, but very few would admit that their own self-preservation instincts might interfere with their good intentions. Ethne explained that people who gave that answer were more likely to step onto the tracks and pull the lever.

Steve’s non-answer, as both Bucky and Ethne described it, of demanding a third alternative that was more to his liking was indicative too. It was indicative, Ethne had explained, that Steve would really struggle with difficult decisions – especially those with no right answer. Rather than make a decision, he’d keep demanding an answer to his liking, even if there was none. And that kind of obstinancy would cost lives in a crisis situation.

_‘It’s a false dichotemy, true,’ Ethne said, ‘but it asks the question I want to ask, in a way that virtually puts them in that situation: would you sacrifice your own life for the lives of other people? I wanted the kids to understand who they were before they stepped out into the real world.’_

And his son was the kind of person who would sacrifice his own life for the lives of other people.

Before this moment, Howard had never known you could be proud, annoyed, and terrified at the same time.

***

 **In Flight**  
Tony had just asked.

‘Why?’ Kolya chuckled. ‘Simple enough, really. I can strip away artificial powers.’

Bucky lifted his head and looked at him from where he had been previously talking to one of the former Raft inmates. ‘You were that kid the KBG brought into the Red Room in the 70s, weren’t you?’

Kolya chuckled. ‘I take it you heard about it.’

‘As the Winter Soldier, yes,’ Bucky said. ‘Well, I heard them talking about it. You came into the Red Room and stripped the enhancements from all of the Black Widow candidates. They re-enhanced them afterwards but still...’

‘Yes, we figured I’d scared HYDRA’s leaders when the attacks on Russian targets-of-interest tapered off.

Kolya cracked a grin. ‘I can’t take away powers that are natural, but I can fight them so the Russian government considers me invaluable. Of course they don’t like to use me too much for fear of the world at large find out that they have me.’

Of course not.

Tony could imagine just how the world’s governments would react to Russia having someone like Kolya.

‘We’re coming in,’ Ethne said.

Tony stood up and walked over to the back of the pilot’s chair. ‘That’s it, huh?’

‘Usually, it’s much more beautiful,’ Jamil said, pulling on his jacket. ‘The villages on the outside are just a front so Wakanda looks as poverty-stricken as the rest of Africa.’

‘How rich are they?’ a man, one of the other enhanced, asked.

Jamil scowled. ‘Rich enough to help the nations around them. They just won’t.’

‘Why the hell not?’ Tony asked. ‘I mean, we’re rich and we have the September Foundation.’

‘Yes, but your parents, as I recall, have always been the kind of people who looked to those less fortunate than themselves.’ Kolya said.

Tony looked back at him curiously. ‘I never saw dad do that?’

‘Doesn’t mean he didn’t,’ Kolya told him. ‘I’ve seen quite a few reports on your old man coming down.’ He folded his hands on top of his head. ‘One of them was in 1945. One of Howard’s weapons – evidentially appropriated after he’d said “no, it’s too dangerous” – was used on a small town, that was entirely massacred. Howard was one of the first people that got there.’

‘What did it do?’ an enhanced woman asked.

‘According to the report I read,’ Kolya said, ‘the weapon brought people to the state of mind that one gets to when they are sleep-deprived, just before they die.’

The woman frowned suspiciously. ‘Why did he develop something like that?’

‘It was the 40s,’ Ethne said. ‘We didn’t know what happened when you stayed awake too long. I wouldn’t be too critical on him, were I you.’

Kolya nodded his head. ‘The report indicated that he’d been comissioned to create a substance that would allow soldiers to operate without sleep.’

The aircraft came to a landing.

‘How far out are we?’ Jamil asked.

Ethne moved aside so he could see the radar.

Jamil nodded. ‘That’s far enough.’

‘That doesn’t seem like a nice hike,’ one of the men remarked from just next to Tony.

‘We have vehicles,’ Grace said. ‘We don’t want to fly too close or we’ll be shot out of the sky.’

Jamil headed for the door. ‘Let’s go.’

***

They stopped and walked as they came to the periphery of the “excavation site”.

As soon as Zhen hopped out of the car, he waved a hand. ‘We’re clear. Let’s go.’

Jamil led the army of enhanced through the jungle to the edge. They came to a ledge and dropped down onto their bellies. Looking over the edge, Grace took in the dig site. The aliens were now scratching back the dirt in the massive crater that used to be the capitol of Wakanda. She didn’t even want to know what’d happened to the Wakandans.

Thanos was easy to see.

He was a giant man with a bulky frame and purple skin. The golden Gauntlet on his right hand had five stones clearly glowing – all different colours. They were clearly reacting to the Infinity Stone inside of Tony. But Thanos stood there, overlooking the dig. They had no idea they were being watched.

Grace looked at the hunk of vibranium next to her. She laid a hand on it and willed it to change shape. It did so. Perfecto. That would come in handy later. Right now, they had something else to do. Grace laid her hand on the ground in front of her. They had to kill as much of these guys as possible.

Huge spikes suddenly shot out of the earth in the crater, impaling those aliens not fast enough to get out of the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kolya's power-stripping ability was tested out in the Red Room.
> 
> The way I see it, the Black Widow candidates would all be enhanced. Look at the stuff we see them do - that's some super-human stuff right there.
> 
> No, I don't think Natasha would take the story of him seriously either. She'd have heard the story while she was in the Red Room, certainly, but I think the 70s was a little before her time in the MCU. She'd be too arrogant to really think someone could take that away from her.


	18. Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fight begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As Thanos doesn't know the names of the Transcendent Souls, he identifies them here via their powers. This is the only chapter where this happens, so here's a guide:
> 
> Ethne: empath, aerokinesis
> 
> Kolya: shape-shifting, mettalokinesis
> 
> Zhen: water transmutation, technokinesis
> 
> Leyla: telekinesis, avikinesis
> 
> Grace: geokinesis, healing
> 
> Mai: shadow manipulation, electrokinesis
> 
> Jamil: super-speed, botokinesis.

The battle raged as Tony and Bucky ran around the periphery of the crater.

Tony skidded to a stop. Bucky stood over him as he opened his backpack and set up the next terminal. While they didn’t expect Thanos to try and take the fight out of the area, it didn’t hurt to be sure. The force-field was designed both for physical attack and for attack by the Infinity Stones. It was entirely possible, even likely, that Thanos might have had people outside the barrier but they’d deal with that when they came to it.

The sunglasses on his face were barely a blip on his radar. Still, they would hide the glowing of his irises if he had to use his powers. His father didn’t usually insist on a lot of things, but he had insisted on the shades. They were fine, as long as they didn’t fall off.

‘Must be weird having your old geography teacher fighting in this,’ Tony remarked.

‘You have no idea,’ Bucky said. ‘I never got the impression that she was this back when she was teaching us. She was just a very smart lady.’

‘I think that was the point,’ Tony said. ‘They don’t want people picking them out in the crowd. I mean, look what happened when Peg found one.’

‘Yes,’ Bucky murmured. ‘I know. I just wish I understood why. I know Steve liked her, but I never noticed her to be the kind of crazy bitch that would do that to so many people. Then again...’

‘Then again what?’ Tony asked.

‘She did test Steve’s shield by shooting at it in the middle of the lab.’ He shook his head. ‘The way Steve told it, some other girl kissed him and she was upset about it. So she shot the shield while he was holding it.’

‘And who thought this woman was stable enough to run an intelligence agency?’ Tony asked. ‘There’s no way she could have known that shield defies the laws of physics. And isn’t shooting at someone when you’re jealous a little bit strong?!’

‘I’d say so,’ Bucky said. ‘But, to be fair to Steve, he didn’t exactly have the experience with girls to know how...batshit that was.’

‘Dude, shooting at a metal shield in the middle of a crowded lab is batshit crazy no matter why or whether you’re a guy or girl,’ Tony pointed out. ‘Bullets typically ricochet, and there’s no way she could have known about the properties of vibranium. Dad only found out because he studied it.’

‘Good point,’ Bucky said.

‘Right, that one’s done.’ Tony stood up.

They both took off running again.

***

Thanos watched in agitation.

Seven of them...

It was now clear that the Soul Stone was not under this country. It can’t have been, not for these people to be fighting his soldiers. They all had been in contact with it. He watched one man transform into water to avoid getting hit and then, upon landing, reach a hand up and manipulate the circuitry of a group of the speedsters, taking control of them out of their pilots’ hands and sending them crashing.

Another – one with dark skin – had super-sped through the area, knocking into several of Thanos’s soldiers and sending them flying to their deaths. When he came to a stop, he planted a hand on the ground and seized control of the plantlife around what was left of the country, creating nets and branches that impaled the guy coming right at him.

While all of the attacking force had powers – and different ones at that – only seven had multiple powers. And those seven seemed to work as a cohesive unit, far more than the others did. They were used to each other. They knew how the others fought and they knew how to coordinate and compensate for them.

The only way they could’ve gotten like that was contact with the Soul Stone.

Thanos gritted his teeth as one of the females of the seven lifted a hand to her mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Almost immediately, every type of bird within hearing distance of that swooped down and began attacking his army. Avikinesis was useful no matter what planet you were on due to the sheer number of birds that lived on every single planet – countless species, all in flocks, all over the planet.

Another woman slid down the earth she’d upraised and was moving as she held a hand over her wounded up and the wound closed up. She then turned the earth itself against the swarm of soldiers charging at her.

Yet another woman was attacking both with the shadows themselves and with electricity out of her fingertips.

The final woman was rendering the enemies she attacked with her aerokinesis lethargic before she attacked them.

The final man was easily altering his physical form right before he hit, and and altering the composition of the metal lying everywhere into weapons which were then launched at the soldiers attacking him.

And there was no way to know if they had...more powers.

Only the Soul Stone could imbue them with such abilities.

But none of them had their eyes glowing with the power of the Infinity Stone.

Thanos stepped down onto the battlefield and walked towards them. His followers, like good little soldiers, withdrew for the other combatants. All seven seemed to realise what this meant. They turned to face him approaching and came to form a line as he drew nearer. Thanos approached them, putting as much menace into his stride as possible. It was impressive how they never showed any trace of fear.

‘You must be the Mad Titan,’ the shape-shifter/mettalokinetic said.

‘You have touched the Soul Stone,’ Thanos stated.

‘Yes,’ the electrokinetic said. ‘What of it?’

‘Where is it?’ Thanos demanded.

‘Damned if we know,’ the empath/aerokinetic said. ‘You’re hardly the first to come looking for it. We sent it from the temple it resided in centuries ago.’

If she was lying, she was good at it.

‘If you will not tell me,’ Thanos said, lifting his Gauntlet and sliding it on, ‘then you will be destroyed.’ The geokinetic lifted a foot.

He fired a blast at them.

The geokinetic stamped.

The seven humans were thrown out of the way.

They all landed firmly on their feet.

Thanos _would_ have that Stone.

***

Mai smirked as she dodged yet another blast.

It’d worked like a charm. Show Thanos they had at least two powers each. He’d realise they’d been in contact with the Soul Stone and come after them. Tony and Bucky, meanwhile, could set up the barrier without him noticing. The Transcendent Souls would act as the diversion and, with a bit of luck, Thanos might never found out where the Soul Stone really was.

Now all they had to do was stay alive and be useful.

***

Tony turned the dial on the last of the reactors. It was almost done. 

‘Shit!’ Bucky suddenly spun beside him and opened fire.

Someone had found them.

Tony quickly finished up and activated the reactor. It glowed blue and the last of the barrier snapped into place. He sprung up and twisted around. There was a small ground of them. Bucky had already shot three of them through the heads. Like Life and Death said, they had to kill as many people as possible.

Tony jumped to the side as a laser blast hit barrier next to him. He felt the heat of it and he didn’t like that one bit.

The aliens looked startled and then they lifted their eyes.

‘You’ve put a force-field up?’ one of them demanded, looking back at them – specifically at Tony.

Tony shrugged. ‘Wouldn’t want anybody running away, would we?’

The alien narrowed his eyes. ‘No one can. Including you.’

Their laser fired up. Both he and Bucky backed up, Bucky moving in front of him. If those hit, there was no way they were walking away from this. On reflex, as the lasers fired, Tony activated his energy manipulation. A reflective barrier was thrown up. The lasers hit the barrier and Tony felt the force of them, throwing both himself and Bucky back.  
The explosion that resulted blew the aliens back. Most of them died.

One didn’t.

In fact, he had a very bad observation. Tony looked around. _Oh, shit._ ‘Bucky?’

‘Yeah.’ Bucky was rubbing his head.

‘I think I’m in trouble.’

‘Huh?’ Bucky followed his gaze. ‘Oh...shit.’

His sunglasses had flown off his face in the middle of that.

***

Thanos snarled as he fired another blast, and it was dodged.

‘My Lord!’ one of his underlings came running towards him.

‘What?’ Thanos snarled.

‘I—’ The underling was suddenly tripped as his shadow itself seemed to turn on him and his mouth and nose were covered. He struggled against something he couldn’t escape from.

Obviously he knew something those seven didn’t want spread around. Thanos rolled his eyes and lifted his glove. The Mind Stone in particular glowed as the underling was smothered to death with his own shadow. Just before he lost consciousness, Thanos got the information from his head. He smirked. As he turned from the seven to get the stone, he heard one of the women curse and the distinctive sound of his underling’s neck being snapped. It didn’t matter.

The Soul Stone had been located.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Tony vs. Thanos.


	19. Tony's Got a Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos vs. Tony Stark.

Thanos moved fast for a big guy.

You’d think his own size and the body armour would have slowed him down at least somewhat. It was also the first time the Transcendent Souls had seen him move in any kind of hurry. The fact that he was in a hurry to get to and murder a 19-year-old boy did not bode well for Tony. Ethne could really only hope that the powers Tony had worked on from that thing would be enough for him to protect himself.

They were close enough to see Bucky brace himself in front of Tony, and take the punch he aimed at him. Bucky went tumbling acorss the ground, but he was up again and standing in front of Tony fast. Ethne winced as she remembered how often Bucky had to stand as a physical barrier between Stevie and whoever he’d picked the fight with. The difference this time was that Tony hadn’t gone looking for trouble.

Thanos curled his lip.

Ethne had a nasty feeling she knew what was coming, even as all seven of them ran, fighting off Thanos’s goons as they went. There was no way they were going to get over there in time. There was only Bucky to defend the boy. And what happened next made her want to jam her eyes shut. (Sometimes Ethne hated the fact that her past as a schoolteacher had given her eyes in the back of her head.)

Thanos lifted his gauntleted hand, and snapped his fingers.

Bucky dissolved, slowly, and with a cry of pain. Tony’s eyes glowed orange as the Soul Stone protected him from the same fate. With a yell of alarm, the teenaged boy richocheted back until he hit the barrier he himself had put up. It didn’t take any kind of telepath to know that Tony was terrified, and his flight response had kicked in. But there was nowhere to go. Next would come the fight response.

Ethne wasn’t sure which she preferred.

***

Tony’s brain tried to keep up with what he’d just seen.

‘So you do have the Soul Stone,’ Thanos said.

Tony remembered the facts here. He couldn’t afford to break down now. Besides, it was likely that this wasn’t the end of Bucky. Life and Death had a plan, and maybe Bucky could benefit from it. He already knew that Thanos’s army was falling and dying as they stood there, at odds. The Transcendent Souls certainly weren’t holding back as they ripped through everyone who got in their way.

Thanos lifted his Gauntlet again and punched out. A beam of light shot out from the glove, aiming at Tony. The 19-year-old teleported out of the way and landed just to the side. The beam struck the force field and, as it hit the barrier, it was cancelled out. Thanos frowned, and then he turned and looked at Tony.

‘You invented this force field?’

‘Not entirely,’ Tony said. ‘My father invented the device that’s powering it. I put it into this form when I found out the Soul Stone didn’t work on it.’

‘Clever boy,’ Thanos said. ‘You’ve been trying to subvert my attempts to gather the Infinity Stones. Did you really think you, a little boy on an undeveloped planet, could stop me?’

‘Whether I could or not is beside the point,’ Tony said. ‘The base instinct of every living being is to survive. Even if I die today, I can die fighting.’

Thanos paused and considered him. Tony felt the beginnings of respect coming from the Mad Titan. _This boy,_ Thanos thought, _knows his self-imposed mission is hopeless, but he’s still going to fight me. He does not want to approach Death in shame._

While not anywhere close to what Tony was thinking, it was all very well for Thanos to think as such. Tony was used to being envied, disparaged, and hated – loved by his parents – but he now realised that he’d never been respected, truly respected like this before. Why was it that his enemy across the battelfield, the man who wanted to destroy his planet and his species, was the first one who gave him respect as a person?

Thanos gave Tony a serious look. ‘If you wish to die for a purpose, boy, then I will give you a good death. What is your name?’

‘Tony Stark.’

‘Do not disppoint me, Tony Stark.’ Thanos came at him.

Tony angled his feet. The ground beneath him rippled, similtaneously sending him away and lashing out at Thanos and knocking him upside the head. The Titan recoiled, but he remained undeterred. Instead, his respect for Tony just increased. Apparently, he liked it when his enemies put up a fight.

But having Thanos’s respect would not save his planet.

***

 **UN Embassy, Nairombi, Kenya**  
If Maria had been home, she’d have been cooking.

As it was, she could only sit in front of the television watching the news coverage – which was limited at best – of the events going on in the country formerly known as Wakanda. This was like a living nightmare. Tony was the only child she’d been able to carry to term and now he was the only thing standing between the universe and total annihilation.

Maria would have liked to blame Howard’s DNA for this but, in truth, it was both of them. Tony was the best of both of them. He was Howard’s brilliance, drive, and loyalty. He was Maria’s optimism and compassion. It was a dangerous combination, especially in a situation like this, but that was who they’d made him.

Maria knew Howard would gladly trade places with Tony if only he could, as she would.

‘Maria?’

Maria turned her head. Howard walked into the room, eyes on the screen. There was a heavy look on his face. This time, it wasn’t because of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was for the far better reason of worrying about whether or not they’d see Tony again. Maria looked back at the TV screen. All the reporters could say was that the battle was still raging. There were no intel on the area at all, and all governments of the surrounding countries forbade anyone from trying to cross the borders.

The couch shifted and Maria leaned into her husband as he wrapped an arm around her. ‘He’ll be all right.’ The slight tremor in his voice betrayed him.

Maria’s tears spilled over.

***

 **Ruins of Wakanda**  
The Mad Titan sailed back, shoulders tearing up the ground he hit. The orange beam cleared from his vision. The boy was teleporting again, clear out of the hands of his soldiers. Metal spears then lanced through Thanos’s men, thick roots impaled them, the air was sucked clear out of their lungs, shadows ripped them apart, and their own technology was turned against them.

The Soul Stone’s chosen few were fighting for the boy’s life just as hard as he was fighting to end it.

A particularly large amount of birds of prey flew in circles around the boy. Most would see it, especially on this primitive rock, as an omen. The boy, however, knew it was the work of one of his allies. Any who got past the others and came too close were instantly attacked. The boy’s eyes were focused on Thanos as his back was guarded by the other seven that the Soul Stone had selected for empowerment.

The boy was a genius.

Very few in the universe were endowed by such natural brilliance – and the boy had clearly inherited it from his father, if his words were anything to go by. The boy had found an effective way to contain the damage that Thanos inflicted, even if it only lasted until his people on the outside managed to destroy find and destroy the devices. He had come to this battle, the first one to ever stand even a little bit of a chance against him – with the right people, and the right tactics, albeit underdeveloped powers.

Yet, the boy rejected many of the powers endowed upon him by the Soul Stone.

Why, Thanos had no idea. Perhaps his desires were more sentimental than material – a thought which Thanos could easily relate to – or perhaps he just lived on too primitive a world to truly understand the power he held in the palm of his hand. Thanos approached the boy, ignoring the several thousands of dead that already stood, and the 50-plus ordinary enhanced rushing across the remains of the city to try and help the boy.

With a wave of his hand, everyone went flying back from him and the boy.

Several of his own soldiers were killed, but a good portion of the Terran enhanced managed to use their powers to save themselves. ‘Stark.’

Tony Stark met his gaze, expression calm despite the fear in his eyes and the lines of exhaustion in his body. He may have had incredible powers – the ability to teleport and the power to fire energy blasts at will – but he was still a very fallible life form, susceptible to fatigue. And it was catching up to him. Thanos smirked at the realisation. He moved fast, too fast for the worn-out boy to avoid him and wrapped his hand around the boy’s neck. He activated the gauntlet, pulling at the Soul Stone and stopping his escape.

‘Know that you have my respect, Tony Stark,’ Thanos said. ‘But you also have what I want.’ Already he’d witnessed the boy get hit by certain impacts that should have killed him. He was being preserved by the stone in his body. Thanos would draw it out and then snap the boy’s neck. Even as one of the other Soul Stone candidates tried to use their shadows to prise his hand from around the boy’s neck, Thanos smirked. ‘Not many put up such a well-executed defence. I hope they remember you.’

A burst of green suddenly exploded in between them.

The next thing Thanos knew, he was lying on the ground. He pushed himself up. There was a woman with flat yellow hair and a bit of an ordinary appearance. In her hand, she held his Gauntlet. Thanos gripped his arm where it had been before. Tony Stark sat on the ground behind her, panting for air.

‘What...happened...?’ he asked between gasps.

‘The Infinity Gauntlet is designed to draw the Infinity Stones to it, like a magnet,’ the woman said. ‘He was using that feature. Fortunately, he just killed the last chunk of his own army that we needed dead.’

‘Good,’ one of the Soul Stone’s chosen spoke as they all arrived. ‘Then I suppose this is your part of the show.’

‘Who the hell are you?’ Thanos snarled, moving to his feet in an instant.

The woman smirked. ‘Really? You’re chasing my sister, but you haven’t the faintest idea who I am?’ She chuckled. ‘To put no finer point on it, as my sister is the personification of death in the universe I am the personification of life. They call me Mistress or Lady Life. You may choose either.’

_Oh..._

Interesting development.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have gone into the perspectives of the Transcendent Souls more, but the perspectives between Thanos and Tony is enough, I feel. They're fighting, and then Thanos goes and does their job for them.


	20. Life and Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life and Death execute their plan.

Life strolled forward, passing the Gauntlet off to Zhen as he walked over. She made herself a physical barrier between Thanos and Tony. The seven Transcendent Souls made themselves a barrier around the teenager. The other enhanced slowly gathered around, more curious over anything else. Of course, they were looking at the physical embodiment of life itself – and they were seeing quite a different form than the one Thanos did.

‘Sister?’ Thanos demanded.

‘For a certain definition of the word,’ Life said. ‘Death cannot exist without life before it. We are two sides of the same coin. As life will always exist, and always has, the same stands true for death.’ She shovelled her hands in the pockets she’d just given herself. ‘And, frankly, killing everyone and everything you can get your hands on won’t win you any points – and don’t give me that finite resources excuse. I’m far too old for that. You say you’re earning my sister’s love, but that’s a load of bull. You wouldn’t know love if it came and bit you in the ass.’

‘Your sister will have more than love!’ Thanos barked. ‘I give her as many souls as this universe has, along with my own in the end!’

Life inclined her head. ‘But you’ve never felt love, Thanos. Not even from your own family—’ And that would certainly get Tony’s pity. ‘—so how can you know what love is? You say you give my sister all the souls in the universe and that is love?’ She clicked her tongue and shook her head. ‘No. You do that in the hopes that she’ll love you. That’s not what love is. Love is giving _everything_ you have because you care – not because you think you’ll get something out of it, but because you think other people will.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Love has many facets and that is only one of them. It cannot be described, but that is the reason the Soul Stone doesn’t want to go near you with a ten foot pole, to borrow the Terran idiom.’

Thanos narrowed his eyes. ‘What are you talking about?’

Life inclined her head back towards Tony. ‘Didn’t you ever wonder why the Soul Stone chose a 19 year old Terran boy to be its host, of all people?’

Thanos sneered. ‘Because he is not willing to face your sister in disgrace.’

Life’s head motion indicated that she was rolling her eyes. ‘Everybody dies, Thanos, and people die in different ways. There is no facing my sister “in disgrace”. Such ideas are primitive and more suited for the likes of Odin of Asgard. No, it is because the Soul Stone was here and he was the most suitable candidate.’

‘How’s that?’ one of the other enhanced Terrans asked.

Life glanced over. ‘Glad you asked.’ She addressed Thanos even as she answered the question. ‘This boy – a child by his own race’s standards – was the only one on Earth who met the criteria by three main principles. The first: he understands that every life is precious and one must be willing to sacrifice their own life for the lives of the many. Even though he is young and often left on his own, he understood what you – you with a sympathetic family and an army of followers – could never understand: life is precious. It’s fragile and it should be protected – not destroyed. Even the reality of death is a mercy unto life.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘My sister ends it before it becomes unbearable.’

‘And they end up like us,’ Grace said.

‘What do you mean?’ Tony asked her.

‘When you live too long, you become apathic and nilhistic,’ Kolya said. ‘Very few things actually have any sort of bearing on the grand scheme of things. You come to the conclusion that seldom do things matter. You start actually looking for trouble, just to liven things up a bit. Why do you think when we reincarnate, we go to places where there’s something interesting happening? Why do you think I reincarnated into Soviet Russia? Why Ethne reincarnated into the Irish Troubles? Why Reuben reincarnated into America as it was turning into a superpower? Because there’s something interesting going on so we’re probably not going to get bored.’

‘Precisely,’ Life said. ‘Which brings me to the second thing. Even though Tony doesn’t want the power, he will use it responsibly. And,’ her eyes narrowed, ‘as soon as he no longer requires it, he will give it up.’

Thanos shook his head. ‘That makes no sense.’

‘The power ain’t his,’ Life said. ‘And, contrary to what you seem to think, it ain’t yours either. The difference is that Tony understands that. He’s one of the few beings in the cosmos that holds the opinion that if he has any kind of powers, he should have to constantly work for them.’ She turned her head, in dismissal of Thanos. ‘But that’s the Stark MO. They worked their fingers down to the bone for everything they have and they continue to work in order to retain it, irregardless of any classist outlooks.’

That, Tony has the feeling, wasn’t aimed at Thanos in particular.

‘And the third thing?’ Ethne asked.

‘Brainpower,’ Life said. ‘Tony has to hold the memories of every single soul that the Soul Stone has absorbed. As I said to his father, had any of you been in proximity to an Infinity Stone back when it came looking for a host, it would have been one of you. You have the memories of every single lifetime in your heads. Tony, on the other hand, has one of the highest-functioning brains on the planet – along with Reed Richards.’

‘Who?’ Tony asked.

‘You’ll meet him later in your lifetime,’ Life said. She turned back to Thanos. ‘And there is going to be a “later” for him. Do you know why, Thanos?’

Her sister’s voice answered before he could. ‘Because we’re going to make an exchange.’ Death faded into view.

‘Death!’ Thanos called, the scowl vanishing from his face for a more affectionate look. ‘Why send your sister ahead? Why not come to me personally?’

Life noticed several people working it out and starting to snigger amongst themselves.

Death’s eyes remained hard though. ‘Because I had to finish up some business on the mess you’ve been making.’

‘What?’ Thanos looked honestly confused and distraught. It was truly pathetic, in a sad and pitiable kind of way. ‘What do you mean, my dear Death?’

‘Don’t call me that.’ Death shook her head. She walked over and glared up at him. ‘I haven’t been appreciating the influx of souls you’ve been sending my way.’

Only then did Thanos start to get angry. ‘I sent them to you as a gift!’ he yelled. ‘I killed thousands upon thousands of people – for you! What would you have me do then? Kill the entire universe until nothing lives?’

‘Hmph!’ Death turned her back on him, causing him to draw back in shock. She spoke without ever looking at him. ‘Don’t be a fool. My sister just told you life cannot be entirely smote from existence. Your actions on behalf of me do nothing but destroy lives and disrupt the balance of the universe.’

‘What...?’ Thanos seemed shell-shocked.

‘The universe is in a constant state of the living and the dead,’ Life said. ‘Even if it does not seem as such from the mortal plane, life and death are usually perfectly balanced.’ She glared at him. ‘Then you came along and threw everything out of whack. The universe is dying, because of you, and us along with it. The only way to save it is to restore the balance. Today we start, because this planet has become the tipping point.’

Death lifted a hand. A black glowing orb (the Terrans would be wondering how there could be a black glow) hovered just above her palm.

‘What is that?’ Thanos asked apprehensively.

‘An exchange orb,’ Death said, turning her head to look back at him. ‘Throughout this battle, the soul of every single follower of yours killed was gathered inside. The only soul it’s missing is _yours_.’

‘Don’t imagine seeing us again after this.’ Life lifted her hands and both glowed green. ‘When your soul gets traded in this manner, its energy is entirely exhausted and you simply flicker out of existence.’

‘Death, you can’t...!’

‘Nice knowing you!’ Life propelled her hands out and a beam of green light shot across the short distance. Thanos screamed as he was disintegrated on the spot. The exchange orb glowed brighter. Death smiled as Life trotted over.

‘That’s it?’ Tony asked. ‘He’s...gone? Just like that?’

Life grinned at him. ‘Seems a bit anticlimatic, doesn’t it?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Zhen said. ‘He nearly killed Tony and we’ve only got,’ he turned and counted the group, ‘nine people left, aside from the Soul Stone enhanced.’

‘We’ll restore the numbers,’ Death said. ‘But, first, I want to move out of Wakanda.’

‘Good idea.’ Jamil winced. ‘Wakandans have a philosophy not unlike the North Sentinelese when it comes to outsiders.’

‘North Sentinelese?’ one of the enhanced volunteers asked. ‘Isn’t that the island off the coast of India where the natives kill people who even accidentally come into contact with them?’

‘Yes,’ Ethne said.

‘Hooo-kay! Let’s go!’

They all began working. Jamil ran to get the ship so they could load all of their dead onto it.

Tony paused just before they climbed onto the ship themselves.

‘Tony?’ Ethne asked.

‘Give me a moment.’ Tony knelt down and pressed his palms to the ground.

Around him, the earth started to shift. The dirt moved, flying back to where it had been dug up from. The dirt condensed and reset into the form it had been in before. Next, the buildings began to restructure, albeit with cracks through them – showing where they had been broken apart. As if Tony was reversing time, the capitol city of Wakanda was reassembled under Tony’s hand.

‘My God,’ Jamil murmured, looking around. ‘It hasn’t changed a bit.’

Tony grinned and stood up. ‘I figure they ought to have homes to come back to.’ He walked back into the ship.

‘Last hurrah, huh?’ Life chuckled and clapped him on the back.

‘How will I know the Soul Stone will be gone?’ Tony asked her.

‘It doesn’t like to be seen,’ Death told him. ‘You’ll probably just wake up and your powers will be gone.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, the "love" speech felt really corny.
> 
> I think I initially heard of the North Sentinelese from something on Buzzfeed. Writing this, I thought they'd make a good comparison to the way Wakanda was.


	21. Cleaning Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! It's my birthday! So I posted this chapter and I began a new installment of The Holmes Estate. It doesn't have any of the relevent tags for most of my readers to find it easily, so I'll link it here:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/14747813/chapters/34097618

Bucky woke up on the chopper. He gasped in air, sat up quickly and looked around.

‘It’s all right,’ Tony said, grinning. ‘Life and Death’s plan worked.’

Bucky huffed and sat up. He noticed the two women in question, standing off to the side and watching. ‘So what was the deal?’ he asked.

‘When you revive the dead,’ Life said, ‘you have to sacrifice a life of equivalent value.’

‘What does that mean?’ Tony asked.

Ethne answered that one. ‘Same intellectual capacity, same lifespan potential, same basic evolutional development scheme.’

Tony frowned. ‘So they didn’t have to be human. They just had to have evolved like humans?’

‘Yup.’

‘Fortunately,’ Life said, ‘that covers most bipedal dominant life forms across the cosmos. We couldn’t revive everyone, but we revived most of them.’

Death huffed. ‘In some cases, it’s not a great loss.’ She stood up and took the Time Stone out of the Gauntlet.

***

 **The Himalayas**  
The Ancient One was the first to her feet.

She looked around, her face masked in perfect discipline as she looked around. The five other members of the order were pushing themselves up and looking around as well – some in confusion, Mordo in annoyance and fear, and Wong simply in fear. They knew, as well as she did, what this meant.

She was not, expecting, however, for a portal to open up near her. A woman with dark lank hair and pale skin stepped out. She opened her hand. The Time Stone rested in her palm. ‘We do hate to lose a good defence for the Infinity Stones.’

‘We still lost it,’ Wong pointed out.

‘Trust me, nobody else comes even remotely close to Thanos’s power,’ the physical embodiment of Death said. ‘You could never have foreseen that. Take it back. It will be needed later.’

The Ancient One nodded and took the Time Stone. ‘And Tony Stark?’

‘Alive,’ Death said. ‘He’s going home now.’

The Ancient One nodded and used the Time Stone to reassemble the Eye of Agamotto around it.

***

 **UN Embassy, Nairobi, Kenya**  
Tony barely stepped off the aircraft before his mother was rushing to him.

Her arms were around him and hugging him tight before he could really blink. ‘I’m okay, mom!’ he insisted. ‘I’m fine!’

He looked over his mom’s shoulder at his father as his mother refused to let go of him. He knew she’d been terrified he _wouldn’t_ come back, so he let her reassure herself that he was really back. His dad looked him over, and his eyes locked onto Tony’s neck. He supposed he must’ve had bruises from where Thanos had grabbed him. He averted his eyes. He kind of felt bad for Bucky. Howard had wanted him to protect Tony.

‘What happened?’ Howard asked.

‘I got killed.’ That was all Bucky said. ‘Life said she’ll be back. She just has to deal with something.’

‘Life’s coming back here?’ Howard asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bucky shrugged. ‘Apparently, Carter’s on her way over because she got offended by us doing this without her.’ As he spoke, the aircraft was leaving again. He jerked a thumb at it. ‘Which is why that’s happening. Life wants a word with her. Should make a good show while I’m waiting for my pick-up.’

***

 **Wakanda**  
T’Chaka had only been recently crowned when the calamity came from the sky.

Then it was over. Their nation was restored with only cracks in the structures to show for it. Then he walked into his office to find an unknown woman sitting there. The Dora attempted to subdue her, but she threw them all back with an upraised hand. She then looked at T’Chaka and smirked.

‘This is how you greet the personification of all life in the universe?’ she asked. ‘You shouldn’t respond to good fortune with bad grace, King Kitty.’ Something about the nickname seemed to amuse her. ‘Your entire nation was just saved by two celestials, myself included, that decided your position wasn’t really your fault.’

‘What do you mean?’ T’Chaka asked.

Ten minutes later, he sat at his chair. ‘We were saved by a white boy?’

Life smirked again. ‘Well, you have homes to come back to _because_ of a white boy.’

‘Isn’t he the son of the thief?’ one of the Dora asked.

‘Thief!’ Life laughed. ‘Oh, do remind me: how did the vibranium come to your country? A meteor?’

‘Yes,’ T’Chaka said.

‘Precisely,’ Life said. ‘Funny thing about meteors. The bulk of them land in one place, but debris flies out in all directions. Some landed in the ocean, some in other parts of Africa, some even in the Middle East and Europe. Howard Anthony Walter Stark did _not_ steal the vibranium he acquired for the Captain America shield. Presuming as such makes you look a buffoon.’ She inclined her head at their hard glares. ‘Don’t be too put out, though. Most people outside do that, but it’s because of his wealth rather than their own hubris.’

‘Hubris?’ T’Chaka asked.

‘Let me put this clearly,’ Life said. ‘You died, and you died quickly – all of you. The ones who killed you with hardly any effort were soundly defeated by an enhanced ragtag group of fighters only 63-strong. All of which came from the outside, I might add. You were targeted because of the resources that can be found here and _only_ here. I understand your isolationist policy worked in the days of colonialism, but those days are over! Now, it just painted a great big target on your country and your people suffered for it.’

That said, she turned and vanished into thin air.

Her words echoed in T’Chaka’s head.

_‘...it just painted a great big target on your country and your people suffered for it.’_

***

 **UN Embassy, Nairobi, Kenya**  
Now that the crisis had passed, Tony had expressed interest in trying some local food.

The kid had always been open to new experiences, which was part of what made him a great scientist. Howard sat on one side of him, getting some work done while they waited on Peg’s arrival (which had been confirmed by some very annoyed Kenyan authorities). Maria was watching the news on the TV, which showed the general reaction to the alien invaders being defeated by the Earth’s enhanced and the subsequent reappearance of the nation of Wakanda. The confusion of the fact pertaining to the latter was drowned out by the jubilation and relief of the people that everything was going to be okay.

While the Starks sat on the sofa, Bucky sat in the nearby easy chair, eating his own meal as he too watched the events unfolding. Due to the fact that Howard’s one request to the enhanced had been not to mention his son’s involvement, the victory was being credited to “a group of enhanced that came together” and were being dubbed by the media as The Supers. Not very original, but the media weren’t known for their creativity.

Bucky turning his head was all Howard needed to know.

Tony’s ‘Incoming,’ wasn’t really required, funny as it was.

Peg burst into the room, full of righteous indignation. Howard didn’t move from his spot, nor did his wife, child, or their friend. ‘Did your mother never teach you how to knock?’ Howard asked as he typed away at the email to his remaining board members.

‘What did you just do?’ Peg demanded. ‘It’s all over the news, Howard! The aliens attacking Wakanda were destroyed in a three-hour long battle and then the nation was back!’

‘Just supplied the enhanced army with transport.’ Howard shrugged. ‘Used to do that for Steve, remember?’

‘I do,’ Bucky said.

‘How the hell did you get them to fight for you?’ Peg demanded. ‘They...’ She cut herself off.

‘Unlike you,’ Howard said, ‘I didn’t view them as tools in my arsenal. And, honestly, I didn’t talk to them at all – most of them. They fought because they wanted to save their planet.’

‘Don’t patronise me!’ Peg snapped. ‘When I offered them the chance to save the planet, they turned it down!’

‘That’s because you never offered them to save them planet, you tried to coerce them into helping you control it.’

Peg spun around.

Howard was interested in the way Life strolled into the room. She had opted not to appear out of thin air. Likely, she didn’t want Peg to be distracted by that. Life had something she wanted to say, and she wanted Peg paying undivided attention to what she was going to be telling her. Peg drew back, startled.

‘Who are you?’

‘A celestial,’ Life said. ‘I’m one of the higher beings in the universe, and I’m here to tell you exactly where you’re going.’

‘Oh, that’s ridiculous!’ Peg insisted.

Life interrupted her before she could go on. ‘Margaret Elizabeth Carter, daughter of Harrison and Amanda Carter. Younger sister of Michael Carter. Born at 2:14 on April 9, 1921 in Hampstead, England. You had a sense of adventure from a young age which your brother encouraged and your parents discouraged. Your brother eventually won out and you joined the SSR. After the war, you fought to be recognised by your own merits in the SSR in a male-dominated field that held your gender against you. However, you frequently stepped over the line. Because of your abrasive personality, and your awareness that it was your gender that was the problem, you were able to get out of trouble for, say, kidnapping a man and locking him in the trunk of your car and conducting your own investigations without clearance. It gave you the idea that you could do whatever the hell you liked.’

Peg opened her mouth. Life lifted a hand and a green glow sparked at the ends of her fingertips. A similar glow appeared over Peg’s mouth.

‘No, no. I’ll not have you interrupting me.’ She lifted a finger. ‘Let me explain something to you. Since you met him, you’ve had this idea – as you said to Corporal Timothy Dugan – that people like Howard, here, need to be supervised.’

Howard’s gaze snapped up to Peg’s face, anger clenching in his gut. Beside him, Tony looked over with a disbelieving look on his face. Bucky gave Peg a sceptical look. Maria shot her a glare, so it was likely she’d always suspected Peg held an attitude like this.

‘But, let’s face facts, shall we?’ Life shrugged. ‘It wasn’t Howard that decided S.H.I.E.L.D. was going to be so clandestine nobody knew it existed and nobody could check to make sure the mission it slated wasn’t corrupting. It wasn’t Howard who decided to lock up and-or kill any enhanced who didn’t want to work for him. I, in fact, have strong reason to believe all these “dangerous” people who feel the need to...supervise, are just people you feel intimidated by. That’s it. You’re intimidated, whether by the superior intellect or the superior physical capability, it doesn’t matter. So, you try and control these people by all manner of manipulations: whether that be emotional, physical, or mental manipulations you did it. Now, you come charging in here because the genius – your original victim – did something you had no control over. You’re losing the grip on control you had, and you don’t like it.’

Life walked over a got in her face. ‘Get used to it, honey. It’s all downhill from here. A person who spends their whole lives trying to direct the actions of other people to their whims will be punished by the universe.’ She clicked and the green glow vanished.

‘What...?’ Peg grabbed at her mouth.

‘These are your last cognizant years, Carter,’ Life said as she walked away. ‘I’d spend them on teaching that niece of yours, were I you, rather than worrying about such petty things as maintaining the control you once had.’

Then she was gone.

‘Where did she go?’ Peg demanded.

‘No idea,’ Howard said. He hit a button. ‘But don’t let the door hit you in the fanny on your way out.’

The security detail walked in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life intentionally used Tony's future nickname for T'Challa. (I don't know if MCU Tony actually called him that or if it's fanon but I like it.)
> 
> And, yes, Life looks Wakandan to him.
> 
> I can't quite take credit for the meteor point. I read Izumi2's fic, Wakanda, where the point was brought up and I realised it was a really good point. Wakanda can't be the only place where the vibranium landed. It's just where the bulk of it landed.


	22. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the battle over, the Starks start anew.
> 
> Wakanda comes out of isolation.
> 
> An 8th Transcendent Soul makes an appearance.

**The Lubyanka building, Russia (KBG HQ)**  
The television was on mainly as background noise as the various agents milled around, most of them off duty. Kolya Zima sat on the couch, clipping his nails. He briefly glanced up as he felt the couch shift and one of his associates sat next to him. Most of them were curious about the series of events that transpired but it was acknowledge, albeit reluctantly on some parts, that when the whole planet was endangered politics ceased to matter.

‘Was it really as bad as they said?’ he asked.

Kolya tried to remember the man’s name. It was something...beginning with I...? ‘Yes. He nearly got all of the artefacts.’

‘The prison that the Carter woman had?’

‘I see how HYDRA fooled her for so long. She seemed under the presumption that just because it was in a radar blind spot no one would find it and no one would assail it.’ He scoffed. ‘The security was ridiculously lax. Those were probably some of her least motivated men in there – perhaps those she did not like.’ He nodded to the television. ‘Is it not gratifying to watch her struggle without Howard Stark to protect her?’

Isaak! That was it! A Russian-ised version of a biblical name. ‘I do not understand why he did so to begin with.’

‘We do strange things for our friends.’

Isaak nodded in acquiescence. ‘Is our partnership with the CIA terminated then?’

‘Yes, we appear to be back to normal. Hostile and suspicious as ever.’

‘I am glad to hear it.’ Isaak got up and walked across the room to his actual friends. Kolya wasn’t worried. The whole KBG knew his loyalty (such as it was) would continue to remain with Russia while he lived as one of their citizens. They knew he viewed this as a much simpler and hassle-free way to live.

Kolya chuckled.

***

**New York, USA  
 _WAKANDA RE-ENTERS THE WORLD STAGE_**

‘Hmph!’ Howard tossed the paper aside. ‘Of course they are. Got scared, didn’t they?’ He chuckled and shook his head. ‘Well, I guess we’ll see how good their tech really is.’

‘I’m betting it’s not gonna be much,’ Tony said from the couch in the office. ‘Or, it’s not gonna take us long to catch up. Way Jamil was talking about it, I don’t think they advance very often.’

Howard smirked. ‘You find out how he knew that?’

‘Apparently, he got curious one lifetime so he reincarnated into Wakanda after he died.’

Howard chuckled. ‘That explains it. What are you reading?’

Tony nodded to the computer screen in front of him. ‘Another set of protection requests.’

‘Oh, man. She didn’t do it again, did she?’ Howard rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘No wonder I was constantly putting out fires. The woman has no idea when to admit defeat and deal with her problems.’ He walked over and looked at the laptop him. ‘Not without being able to come crying to me, at least. Well, she can’t do that anymore. Did you look into the stock trends like I told you to?’

Tony leaned over and flicked open a new window.

Howard let his eyes skate over it. ‘Good. Now what does this tell you?’

***

Howard had let Tony run off to have lunch with Rhodey. They got to talking about Carter.

‘So she’s not coping well, then?’ Rhodey asked with an undercurrent of amusement. Of course he, along with the rest of the world, had been outraged when S.H.I.E.L.D.’s list of human rights violations had been exposed. And why had they been exposed? Because Howard Stark was no longer protecting the clandestine organisation. Not that the public knew that, and it would really garner no more than a raised eyebrow if it became known – mostly because Howard had no actual power in the organisation and he had entirely divorced himself from it. If anything, the millionaire would be seen as another of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Peggy Carter’s exploitation victims.

Carter, it seemed, was at least politically aware enough to realise that.

‘Apparently, it’s harder than it looks.’ Tony shrugged. ‘I don’t see it, personally.’

‘Yeah, but you were raised to do this stuff, Tones. It’s like second nature to you. Whereas Carter has spent so much time hiding behind your old man that she’s completely unprepared for him to walk away and leave her to the wolves.’ He paused. ‘Maybe _throw_ her to the wolves would be more accurate. He’s the one that got the ball rolling, after all.’

Tony laughed and shook his head. ‘The best bit is more or less what they found out though.’

‘Oh, yeah.’ Rhodey looked confused. ‘That remark Life made. You said it sounded like she was indicating something a bit more severe than just losing the “secret” bit in her secret spy agency.’

‘Yeah. I talked to the Transcendent Souls and they had a look. It was Mai and Grace who found it out.’

‘Found what out?’

‘Peg has Stage 1 Alzheimer’s.’

Rhodey started and then he slowly looked at Tony’s amused face. ‘She doesn’t...seem to have any problems remembering things like that.’

‘That’s because human science can’t pick it up in the early stages – not until Stage 3.’ He sat back, eyes twinkling. ‘Unless, of course, somebody can either synchronise to another person’s thoughts and notice the memory loss is uncharacteristic for a person’s age or heal so they can sense the cells in the brain degenerating.’

‘You seem to be enjoying this.’ Not that Rhodey wasn’t also. After what she’d done, Carter deserved some punishment.

‘I’m not the only one. Dad actually laughed. The schadenfreude is strong.’

***

 **Bethany, Connecticut**  
The door to the small town cafe opened.

A small family walked in. The brunette daughter, eight years old, tapped over what she wanted in the display and then she walked over and climbed onto the seat of one of the booths. She looked at the TV screen in the corner of the cafe and focused on it with a high level of intensity. She stared at it, watching with rapt attention, even as her family moved around her.

Even when her food was placed in front of her and she ate, she didn’t tear her attention away from the screen.

When one of the staff, a redheaded woman with blue eyes, came to clean up for them, the girl’s mother turned to her. ‘Gin, we heard you graduated with honours.’

Virginia Potts smiled. ‘Yeah, I’m actually on my last shift. I got a job with a company called AIM.’

‘What’s that?’ the father asked. ‘I’ve never heard of it.’

‘Advanced Idea Mechanics,’ she said. ‘It’s just a secretarial role.’ She grinned. ‘Really, I’d prefer to get into Stark Industries but, you know, they’re the best. But, you know, I’m not going to get the best job straight out of college. I can build my way up from where I am.’

‘True enough,’ the father said.

The little redheaded girl nodded. ‘Stark Industries is the best! But that’s cause there’s a genius in charge! I really, really hope you get there eventually, Gin!’

‘I think you will.’ The brunette girl finally turned away from the TV to speak to Virginia. ‘It’ll be a few years, but you’re good enough.’

‘Thanks,’ Virginia said.

The brunette girl smiled. ‘Well, it’s a good day all around then. You can start aiming for Stark Industries now and the rest of us don’t have to worry about those guys,’ she pointed at the TV screen where they were showing the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. pushing through a crowd of reporters and trying to avoid getting clear shots of their faces taken. ‘I don’t think it’ll take too long for us all to say “hi” again.’

Slightly confused, Virginia smiled. ‘I’m moving to New York.’

‘I know.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm leaving it ambiguous as to whether the Soul Stone made Tony a Transcendent Soul or not, but it has left him at this point.
> 
> Tony's right in this: it doesn't take the rest of the world long to catch up to Wakanda.
> 
> Seeing as Alzheimer's can take years to really set in, I make Sharon 15 when Peg hits Stage 3.
> 
> I may write another chapter set in the future to show how things changed because of this story. I haven't decided yet.


	23. End Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens after Thanos is gone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You asked, so here it is.
> 
> I picked out certain characters I wanted to cover for what changed with the end of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s influence over Howard.
> 
> Okay, so this is really long because I wanted to cover several points.

**1992**  
‘Well, Peg called her batch the Avengers,’ Howard mused.

‘Avengers?’ Tony scoffed. ‘Really? What were they supposed to be Avenging?’

‘That’s what I said.’ Howard snorted. ‘I think she just liked the way it sounded.’

‘Our team needs a better name like...’ Tony fished for a minute. ‘League of Heroes.’ He paused. ‘No, that’s a bit too pretentious, isn’t it? And the acronym would be LOH.’

‘Yeah, it doesn’t exactly strike fear into the heart, does it?’ Howard paused to consider. ‘League of Super Humans?’

‘LOSH? Tell you what, let’s get rid of the “league” thing altogether, but I like the “super human” bit. Maybe...Strike Team of Super Humans!’

‘Super Human Attack Force!’ Howard paused. ‘No, hold on. That sounds a bit too violent.’

‘Well,’ Tony rubbed at the goatee he was just growing out – and still getting used to. ‘Maybe we’re going about this from the wrong angle. I mean, we have taken in some people who just have tech that gives them powers. We should probably incorporate that into the name.’

‘Machine And Super Human Alternate Defence.’

Tony looked at his father and grinned. ‘Can you believe we’re two of the most brilliant minds on the planet?’

Howard laughed.

 **1994**  
Tony looked up from the computer screen. ‘Oh, hey, Sharon. Aren’t you supposed to be in school?’

‘Oh, and you never ditched?’ Sharon Carter plopped down on the couch in his office.

‘Something wrong?’ Tony asked.

Sharon waved it off. ‘Aunt Peggy left me a microwave dinner again. It’s the fifth time this week.’ She rested her head back. ‘I don’t see her a lot and, when I do, she does nothing but talk about what a great, big hero Captain America was.’ She scoffed. ‘He wasn’t the one who pulled me out of a HYDRA bunker when I was a baby.’

Tony pressed his lips together. ‘Look, little coz, Peg’s still hung up on the guy. I know it doesn’t excuse it but...she just can’t comprehend anyone else matching him.’

Tony had started thinking of, and referring to, Sharon as his cousin. Though they weren’t technically related, his parents had both approved of the choice. His mother said it gave Sharon the sense that she had family outside of Peg who, rather than try to do better at parenting that Howard, had elected to just avoid it as much as she could. His dad said it would help discourage a hero-crush which a lot of girls became prone to.

Tony was just as prone to fooling around, as he’d found out only recently, as his father had been at his age. So it wouldn’t do for Sharon to develop those kinds of feelings towards him.

Mind you, none of the Starks were too happy with Sharon _already_ knowing about what HYDRA had done to her father and tried to do to her.

Sharon sighed. ‘Do you have a Nintendo in here?’

Tony nodded. ‘It’s behind the couch you’re sitting on.’

Sharon turned around and fetched the Nintendo in question. She hooked it up to the unused TV monitor in his office and began playing. Tony was perfectly content to let her sit there. It probably wasn’t very responsible of him. He should have sent her straight back to school. The truth of the matter was, though, that she was a lonely, angry kid who needed to know that people cared about her.

That was the same reason why when, about an hour and a half later, Howard walked into the office, he reacted to the, ‘Hi, Uncle Howard,’ with no more than a raised eyebrow and a pointed look and then ignored Sharon completely ignoring him. He, instead, stepped over her set up and came around to see how Tony was doing.

If Maria was here, she’d be far more insistent on the matter than her husband and son.

Howard didn’t look like he was going to be retiring anytime soon but he wanted Tony to be prepared for the day when he did have to take control of the company. Already, SI was deviating away from weapons and putting more effort into robotics and the medical field. Tony’s ability to just absorb any information he came across (the very same intellectual capacity which had put him in the running to host the Soul Stone) was proving extremely useful.

‘Peg again?’ Howard whispered as Sharon was entirely focused on the fighting game she’d picked out to play, taking her aunt-related frustrations out on her computer code opponent.

‘Yup.’

 **1996**  
Captain Carol Danvers had recently acquired super-powers. She’d taken out the threat – the aliens seeking to invade her planet – but S.H.I.E.L.D. was still hounding her. And it looked like the fact that she was an Air Force officer would do nothing to discourage her. So...when her commanding officer called her into his office and handed her a proposal made by Stark Industries...

At first she’d been a little wary.

Then Rhodey had stepped in. He’d told her all about the events of ’89 and the reasons why the Starks felt obligated to shelter and protect the enhanced community from the likes of S.H.I.E.L.D. _and_ HYDRA – and it was S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA. She’d known Rhodey in basic and then command training and she trusted him.

So, she took the offer.

Soon after, she was made a field commander.

 **1998**  
‘I really like her, Tony,’ Maria insisted to her son. ‘I really, really like her. She’s an absolute gem!’

‘Maria!’ Howard called from the next room over. ‘Stop trying to set the boy up with his PA! He’s only 28! Do you have any idea what _I_ was doing at 28?’

‘I’ve heard the stories,’ she called back.

Tony took the opportunity to duck out of the room.

 **1999**  
‘She’s from New Haven,’ Pepper had said of Sharee Pertinicle when she introduced her to Tony. ‘Her family liked coming to the cafe where I had my first job.’

A few hours in her company and Tony worked it out. He waited until Pepper left the room before he asked. ‘You’re a Transcendent Soul, aren’t you?’

Sharee grinned. ‘Yeah, we all have the same mannerisms, don’t we?’

‘A bit, yeah. How many people know?’

‘Besides the others and you?’ Sharee cocked an eyebrow. ‘Only my immediate family.’

‘So you were the one who was too young to host the Soul Stone? You were in stasis when it was looking for a host?’

‘That’s me.’

Tony inclined his head. ‘And what powers do you have?’

‘Cardiology manipulation. Probability manipulation. And I was one of the founders of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, along with Agamotto and a few others.’

That made sense, Tony supposed. They’d said that the one who was too young had contact with another Infinity Stone. From what Tony understood, the Space Stone being thrown down to earth happened only recently, all things considered. It was unlikely a Transcendent Soul would just let an Infinity Stone float around until the Red Skull found it. That meant the Stone she had contact with had to be the Time Stone.

The Stone which had entire Order protecting it.

 **2003**  
‘Dr. Bruce Banner?’

Bruce spun around, immediately defensive. He was surprised to see a man he knew only from TV and who dominated tabloids. ‘Tony Stark?’

Tony Stark obviously had a flair for the dramatic. He stopped spread his arms and grinned. ‘The one and only.’

‘Why...are you here?’

‘Let’s have a chat.’

As this was a backwater, there weren’t many places but they sat at the table in Bruce’s shack. Bruce drank his tea and Tony drank coffee. Tony Stark had come to him with a proposal. Bruce had known that Stark Industries ran a compound, of undisclosed location, that sheltered super humans from unjust persecution. It had always seemed to him, though, both the first thing Ross would expect him to do and terrible invasive and careless for Bruce to ask for that protection. But, here Tony Stark was – just offering it.

At first Bruce was hesitant. ‘I mean the Other Guy can come out without any warning and then he’ll just smash everything in sight. I don’t want to risk hurting other people just so I can feel safe.’

Tony had smiled at him. ‘I read up on what happened. That much gamma radiation should have killed you.’

‘So you’re saying the H—the Other Guy saved my life?’ Bruce was a bit dubious on the matter. ‘That’s nice. It’s a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?’

‘I guess we’ll find out.’

Tony talked him into it. If they understood how the Other Guy worked, they might be able to prevent him from being so destructive. Besides, like Tony said, there were a lot of other powers there so it wasn’t like anyone else couldn’t defend themselves. The compound was based outside of New York – away from the general populace but it had enough safety nets so that even if it was found by anyone the enhanced living inside would remain safe.

As a way to pay for the lodgings, most of the enhanced worked out of the compound in some way. It actually didn’t take Bruce all that long to settle in. And Tony was over frequently enough. Bruce was astounded at him, really.

He’d heard, of course, that Tony Stark was a genius. But this was on a level he’d never seen before. The man could absorb concepts, which usually took years of study, in a matter of moments. He was also one of the most humble smart guys Bruce had ever met. He was primarily an engineer and deferred to experts in the fields outside of that.

On top of that, this place not only settled the Hulk down but it made it impossible for Ross to find him.

 **2010**  
Thor looked up curiously as the door to his cell was opened.

‘Jane?’ Thor was shocked. ‘How?’

‘No time to explain,’ Lady Jane said as she and Lady Darcy rushed in and removed his restraints. ‘I’ll tell you on the way.’

The two of them rushed him out of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s base and to a vehicle. Lady Jane drove out of the area as quickly as she could and explained what was going on. It seemed a noble family, or jarls as they were called on Asgard, had set themselves against this group of people long ago. They had extended their aid to both Ladies Jane and Darcy to extract Thor and bring him to their sanctuary for Midgardians who had been gifted powers.

The place itself was strange, and there was already a large group of Midgardians here. Thor was actually appalled to see mere children had to take refuge here as well. Were there any levels these S.H.I.E.L.D. people would not sink to?

The family Stark were awaiting them in an office in the compound. Lord Stark was an aged man but he was clearly just as sharp was his son. The two of them together had orchestrated the extraction of Thor himself. Lady Stark was an excellent hostess, immediately seeing to Thor’s comfort and asking him about where he’d come from and if he was all right after his time in captivity.

The family explained to him how S.H.I.E.L.D. had come about and how they operated. It was troubling to think that some Midgardians had sunk to a level where they would use their friends and allies to further their own ambitions. Son of Stark had then explained.

‘Without our money, they’re hanging on by the skin of their teeth and they make any power grabs they think they can get away with.’

Most troubling indeed.

It was only when he redeemed himself and returned home that he discovered that Son of Stark had, years ago, hosted the Soul Stone – one of the six Infinity Stones – and, with the help of Mistress Life and Mistress Death, had vanquished the Mad Titan in battle. It had always been somewhat of a mystery as to what had happened when the Mad Titan vanished without a trace, along with his forces. Now they knew what had happened.

Thor had almost been concerned for his father’s health at the discovery, he’d gone so quiet and still.

Then Heimdall discovered that Son of Stark had willingly relinquished the Soul Stone, declaring that the power was not his own.

Thor had never seen his father show such a reverent respect for any denizen Midgard before.

‘He knew such power was not his for keeping, and, once his vessel was no longer required, he relinquished it as he certainly should have done.’

Odin respected Son of Stark.

 **2012**  
Bucky sat back and waited.

‘Bucky?’

‘Hiya, punk.’ Bucky looked over at him. He was still a little bit sore from having to wrestle Stevie out of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mitts. The idiots just didn’t seem to be able to take a hint. This was going to be tough. Bucky remembered what had happened when they realised Steve was out of the ice.

_FLASHBACK_

‘He’s not gonna like it,’ Bucky said. ‘Steve took pride in being in charge. He had this automatic assumption that he was the boss.’

‘How did he get away with that?’ Carol asked.

Bucky shrugged. ‘He was Captain America. It looked better if he appeared to be in charge. No one wanted to call to attention that he was a private at best.’ He looked between Tony, Carol, and Rhodey. ‘If you do put him on any of your teams, expect a large amount of backseat driving. And keep him away from people who’d feet his ego.’

‘We should probably talk to Ethne,’ Rhodey said. ‘She’d know how to handle him.’

_END FLASHBACK_

Steve sat up quickly, smiling. ‘How...?’

‘When I fell, I landed in a river,’ Bucky said. ‘Got snatched up by HYDRA, brainwashed and turned into an assassin.’ It was not a time frame that Bucky liked to remember. He skipped over it as quickly as he could and got to Tony getting his butt saved as quickly as he could.

Rather than looking grateful, Steve looked put out.

‘So some kid saved you?’ he asked.

‘Not just a kid, Stevie,’ Bucky said. ‘ _Howard’s_ kid. They sent me to kill the Starks.’

‘Howard had a kid?’ He was disproportionately surprised at that.

Bucky gave him a long look. ‘Shouldn’t it be more surprising to learn that the kid was born within wedding vows?’

So, now that that bandage was ripped off, it was time for Steve to _meet_ Tony.

Unfortunately, Tony was in between meetings (and had heard a lot more of Ethne’s stories of Steve and less of his father’s praises – which had gotten exceedingly rare after the battle against Thanos) so he only paused long enough to say, ‘Wasn’t expecting to ever see you.’ Then he gave them a goodbye and headed for his next meeting.

‘He’s rude,’ Steve remarked. ‘Didn’t Howard teach him better manners than that?’

Bucky rolled his eyes. ‘For God’s sake, Steve. He runs a Fortune 500 company. He can’t stand around yakking all day.’

They settled into a kind of rhythm. It was soon, however, that Bucky discovered that letting Steve go out on his own was a mistake. Apparently, S.H.I.E.L.D. were still opportunistic bastards. To be fair, Bucky had warned Steve about them. Stupid punk never knew to listen though.

‘There’s nothing wrong with them!’ Steve insisted. ‘They’re nice. Nat was saying—’

Bucky cut him off. ‘Nat? As in Natasha Romanoff?’

‘Yeah. You know her?’

Bucky snorted. ‘Oh, my God! She’s a Black Widow. They’re enlisting Black Widows now?’ He shook his head. ‘She tried to force her way into SI. Howard and Tony recognised her on sight!’

‘Howard and Peg founded S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ Steve pointed out. ‘Do you deny that?’

‘No, but Peg took advantage of Howard’s loyalty to her as a friend to get his money,’ Bucky said.

‘Peg wasn’t like that!’ Steve insisted.

Bucky frowned at him. ‘I know you had a boner for Peg, Stevie,’ he ignored his old friend’s spluttering, ‘but let’s be frank, you didn’t know her too well. She was just the first girl that showed any interest in you. She did things, to the enhanced community and to the Starks, which were, frankly, detestable.’

Steve got that mulish look on his face.

Bucky stood back. ‘Look, Steve, S.H.I.E.L.D. was HYDRA’s strongest foothold.’ And he had his attention again. ‘What were the names of the guys who approached you – apart from Romanoff.’

Steve still looked shell-shocked. ‘Uh...Fury, and Coulson.’

Bucky nodded. ‘The sociopath and the fanboy.’

Steve drew back. ‘What?’

‘That’s how Howard described them.’ Bucky shrugged. ‘They aimed for the people who could best appeal to you...vanity.’

‘I’m not vain!’ Steve insisted. ‘Have you seen Tony?’

Bucky knew what he was talking about. Steve didn’t often watch the news, turning off things that displeased him – as if ignoring it would make it go away. As he put it, Tony was constantly in the news “making a spectacle of himself”. Bucky frowned. ‘Tony was raised in the limelight from the age of four. What you see him doing is called “working a crowd”.’

‘But—’

‘No!’ Bucky held his hands up. ‘Look, Stevie, your heart’s in the right place but you’re extremely susceptible to the kind of manipulations those three will employ. There are a lot of people in this building who rely on its location being kept secret from them. Howard and Tony set this compound up for the express purpose of protecting the enhanced community from S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA. So, from now on, you go outside, you need someone to go with you.’

Bucky had known he wouldn’t listen.

Sure enough, he’d tried to sneak away.

Bucky had known him long enough to practically smell it so he was there to stop him. That was the thing, they were treating Steve like a misbehaving child because he had never really outgrown that mentality. It was probably his and Stevie’s mom’s fault. They’d let him get away with far too much.

Steve was eventually sat down in a conference room. A group of the other enhanced were there, including Tony. Ethne was also in the room, along with Sharee. Steve was surly as he was sat down by Bucky and Sharon. Steve didn’t know who Sharon was – yet. Mostly because he hadn’t asked.

Howard would be here, but his old age had caught up to him the previous year.

Tony leaned on the table. ‘Rogers, do you know why we told you to stay in the compound or only go out with someone else with you?’

Steve had the mulish look on his face. ‘Because you want to control me and keep me from making connections outside of the compound.’

‘No,’ Tony said. ‘Because the people you’re “making connections” with are a danger to every single person in this compound. Now, look, you have a choice here. You can start abiding by the rules, or I can ship you to a military post.’

The mulish look went off of Steve’s face. ‘A military post?’ he asked with an undertone of hope.

Tony nodded. ‘I take it that’s your option then?’

‘What’s the catch?’ Steve’s eyes narrowed.

‘So suspicious.’ Ethne tutted.

‘Simply put,’ Tony said, ‘the military has changed a great deal in the last 70 years. You’ll just have to adapt to those changes.’ One thing it paid to remember about Stark was that they were excellent chess masters. Tony _wanted_ Steve to go to the military base. But he didn’t want Steve to know he wanted that.

Everyone else knew though.

‘Fine.’ Steve easily agreed.

Later on, as Bucky was walking Steve to the car, they talked.

‘He just wants to get rid of me, doesn’t he?’ Steve said.

This was going to make for an interesting conversation on his next visit to the shrink’s office.

‘Does that bother you?’

‘No.’ Steve glared forward. ‘I don’t see how Howard could have spoiled him so badly. I know he’s not a threat but does he have to keep pretending to be a hero?’

‘Pretending!’

Oh, goody. Sharon had heard that.

They both stopped and turned. The blonde woman walked over. ‘Tony doesn’t pretend to be a hero, Rogers. He never has. He’s a fighter and because of that he’s always been a hero. He never stopped fighting – not even when he was in Afghanistan. I’ve known him since I was a baby and he’s always been _the_ hero to me.’

‘Who are you?’ was all Steve could manage.

‘Sharon Carter.’ Sharon walked past, making sure to knock him a bit. ‘I’m Peg’s niece.’

Steve stood there gawking as she walked off. By the time he recovered, Sharon was gone. He turned to Bucky. ‘Peg had a niece?’

And wasn’t that fun! Explaining Sharon Carter to Stevie.

As they got to the door, Steve said, ‘I’m sure Peg didn’t mean to leave her alone like that.’

Bucky rolled his eyes. Sure, maybe not but the fact was that girl had spent most of her childhood alone – except for when she was with the Starks. ‘Be that as it may, she’s right. Tony’s never _pretended_ to be a hero. He is one.’

‘What has he ever done that was so heroic?’ Steve demanded.

Bucky grinned and guided him into the car. ‘Saved the universe.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to set everyone's minds at ease: Fury, Coulson, and Natasha didn't get far enough in their manipulations to find out where the Compound was.
> 
> Yeah, Steve's being sent to a training camp (he just doesn't know it yet), and I doubt he'll last long.


End file.
